Forever Virus
by Athena1999
Summary: Dark, violent AU where Wizardmon and Myotismon still live. Myotismon casts a dark spell on Wizardmon that makes him permanently transform into a dark sorcerer, but Wiz's gentle soul still lies within. Is Wizardmon alone in his endeavours?
1. The Transformation

Forever Virus By AthEnA1999 

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, never will.

A/N: This is sort of a combination of stuff.  I'm even trying out a new writing style.  Everything's less frivolous and more dramatic, and I refer to the characters as what they are.  I don't usually do that when I write.  It's partially a sequel to Enter: Team Rocket Mon (hereafter known as ETRM) and also an AU fic based on 01 as well.  The way it's related to ETRM is that I was typing Wizardmon's life story in chapter 16 and thought "Hey, this gives me a great idea!"  And this could sort of follow up to it in a way.  As most of you know, ETRM takes place during 01, sort of an AU fic in which the Digiworlds and Pokeworlds combine and merge.  And also as some of you know, Wiz appears as well as another one.  His life story is told.  So I decided to make an entire separate AU fic based on the life story.  What if the dark-digivolving potion had been used on Wiz during 01?  And what if Myotismon were still alive and was able to use Wizardmon's dark digivolution?   OK, in this AU fic, Wiz and Myo are both alive.  Wiz is able to dark digivolve.  He has a brother whose partner is a digi-destined.  Dedicated to Kyer, Sabrina Black, and any other Wiz fans out there.

Oh and BTW all of Wiz's digivolutions are characters of my own creation, and if you want to use em in ur fics just ask me, ok?

Here are Wiz's digivolutions: In-training: Magemon Rookie: Auramon Champion: Wizardmon Ultimates: Incantemon (vaccine) or Necromamon (virus)

Prologue: go to http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=536447&chapter=16

Chapter 1: The Transformation

  One night Wizardmon woke up.  Something just didn't seem right.  Then again, he was excited to see his brother Auramon for the first time in a year, and so excited he couldn't sleep.  His human partner Erika was extremely nice as well.  But still, even if they hadn't been coming, things wouldn't have been right.  It started when he had drunk the potion that made him digivolve, but also made him dark digivolve as well.

  Drinking the potion also made him loyal to Myotismon, and he didn't like that when he wasn't loyal, but he was in debt for the potion.  He didn't know about the error in it, so the wizard worked off his debt every day for a long time.  But after he had dark digivolved to Necromamon by accident, he knew the repaying was completely useless and left.

  Then he vowed that he would never digivolve, even when danger came.  No matter how big of a danger it would be.  After that happened, he was being roughed up by so many dark digimon slaves to even darker digimon.  He was tempted to digivolve, but he told himself he would never do it otherwise he'd turn evil.

  Then Gatomon befriended him, but after she left with digi-destined Kari Kamiya, Wizardmon was condemned to walk the digiworld alone and wait for his friends to return.  The worst part was, his archnemesis Myotismon had never been completely defeated, but temporarily removed.  Possibly.  But he'd never find Wizardmon in such a vast digiworld, would he?

  Wizardmon tried to fall back asleep, convincing himself that no one out there would take him.  Of course, he thought too soon.  That was when a fluttering sound was heard near him.  It sounded very familiar.  The small wizard opened one eye.  "Demidevimon!"

  The bat digimon flapped its wings around and sneered.  He flew around Wizardmon, who opened his other eye and stood up.  He grabbed his staff and brandished it.  Seeing that Wizardmon was prepared, Demidevimon took out a Demi Dart and held it in front of him.

  "What are you doing here?" asked Wizardmon.

  "Orders," replied Demidevimon. "Besides, Wiz old pal, I know what you want!  Seeing you dark digivolve was oh, so painful!  I know how you can make yourself back into a completely good guy who can just digivolve normally!"  Wizardmon did not see him mouthing "He'll believe anything!"

  "Nice try, little imp," said the wizard.  "I know that it's going to make me worse."

  "But the master's back as a good guy, you know," lied the imp, still holding the Demi Dart.  "He's no longer Myotismon.  He's now MoonAngemon, the Angel of the Night!"

  The wizard reconsidered this.  He started to put down his staff.  And then he remembered that Demidevimon was a big liar.

  "He's now a good guy," said Demidevimon.  "Believe me, he can change you back into the good Incantemon.  Your friends will be so proud that you did!"

  "No," said the wizard firmly.  He grabbed his staff.  "Now get the hell out of here!  THUNDER BALL!"  A ball of thunder shot out of his staff and hit Demidevimon so hard he fell onto the ground.  "That's better."

  "No, please," Demdievimon pleaded.  "I'm one of the good guys now!"

  "I know your lies when I hear one," said Wizardmon.  He held up his glowing sun staff.

  "That's it!  If you want to attack me, then so be it!  DEMI DART!"  He shot the dart right into Wizardmon's arm.  Wizardmon tried to attack again, but he just started to feel weak and considerably heavier.  Everything just swirled in front of his eyes before he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.  The imp cackled and dragged him away to a carriage…

  The wizard awakened later in a totally different place that reminded him of an angel's castle.  Everything was bright and had the silvery glow of the moon and more heavenly.  Demidevimon was grinning at him and an angel was grinning as well.  He had very long blonde hair, pale skin, a silver helmet, silver robes, and silvery-white wings.

  "See?  MoonAngemon," said Demidevimon, motioning at the angel.

  "Can you help me?" the wizard asked.  "I want to be completely good again.  The potion that was given to me makes me dark digivolve and I wish to digivolve to Incantemon."

  "Of course I can help," said MoonAngemon, holding out a vial of dark brown liquid.  It looked quite toxic.  "Drink this and you will be a good digimon again."  The angel grinned and held it out at Wizardmon's level.

  The wizard looked at the vial of liquid suspiciously.  It looked extremely unappealing to him, but he shakingly took the vial of potion and drank it down in one gulp.  Its taste was unbearable and it smelled just like a Numemon.  As Wizardmon gulped it down, he started shaking as his entire body started tingling.  He got the strange sensation that this was not the right liquid.  And then he saw his staff glowing this dark color, and the color spread over his entire body.

  "Wizardmon, dark digivolve to… NECROMAMON!"  Where Wizardmon once was, Necromamon stood.  He saw his dark robes and floor-length black hair, and the moon staff.  He gasped in terror and started shaking.  "Wh— what have you done to me?  This is the… wrong potion!  I wasn't supposed to dark digivolve!"

  "MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" MoonAngemon laughed.  "Things aren't what they seem, aren't they?"

  "You fell for it!" Demidevimon exclaimed, flying around the dark sorcerer's head.  "YOU FELL FOR IT!  HA HA!!!"  Then he started laughing his head off.

  As that happened, the castle décor changed from from heavenly to the hades-ish appearance of Myotismon's castle.  Even the smell and the temperature changed.  There was a rushing sensation of coldness that overcame the dark sorcerer.

  But the biggest shock happened next.  "And now for my true form!"  MoonAngemon had spoken in Myotismon's voice instead of Angemon's voice.  His hair grew slightly darker and a lot shorter.  The robes changed into a black cape and a blue bodysuit.  The silver helmet became a red mask.  Even MoonAngemon's face had changed from the hidden angelic face to yet another handsome one.  And sharp white fangs were seen as well.  MoonAngemon had completely changed into his true form, Myotismon.

  Necromamon looked at the staff, then at his former master.  His eyes narrowed in indignance and fear.  "Myotismon… I didn't know it was you.  But only you could fool me into thinking you were an angel!"

  "Yeah, you should have seen the look on your face when he tricked you like that!"  The imp perched on Necromamon's shoulder.  Necromamon tried to swat him off.

  "What did you do to me?" asked the dark sorcerer, still shocked from the change that had taken place.  What was going to happen to him?

  "I merely changed you to be more to my liking," replied Myotismon.  "You are a dark digimon, and that is how you will stay."

  "No…" Necromamon gasped.  "I want to change back to Wizardmon.  At least he was decent."  He dared not tell the vampire that he wasn't trying to be a dark digimon and he wanted to be good, otherwise he'd be attacked.

  "What, living on the dark side isn't good enough for ya?" asked the imp, flying around Necromamon extremely fast.  "Come on, you'll love the life!"

  _I refuse to love the life,_ thought Necromamon.  _I can't be a bad guy.  What's my brother Auramon going to think?_  Auramon knew nothing, never will, except Wizardmon would be gone for good.  _I must de-digivolve, and fast.  Or at least make a run for it._

  So Necromamon was trying with all his might to de-digivolve to Wizardmon.  Unfortunately, he just couldn't.  He stayed Necromamon, and he would be forever virus.  The only choice he had was to run.

  "BLACK SPELL!"  Necromamon blasted a hole through the wall using a blast of dark magic.  It led to another room, and even if the hole didn't lead outside he would be free eventually.

  "You can't escape me," said Myotismon.  "CRIMSON LIGHTNING!"  He used a whip of crimson lightning to force the sorcerer to hit the ground and then bleed.

  Necromamon felt pain as he hit the ground, both on his back and where he hit.  His staff also slid across the floor where he couldn't reach it.  His robes got soaked with warm blood.

  Despite this, the sorcerer wouldn't surrender.  "I will never serve you," he said.

  "Yes you will serve me forever," said the vampire, advancing on Necromamon.  "You are an all-powerful virus!"

  _With the heart of a vaccine,_ thought the sorcerer digimon.  _I will never serve a virus._  "I AM NEVER GOING TO SERVE YOU!!!  I WORK ALONE!!!!  BLACK THUNDER!!"  He used his second attack on Myotismon, who was hit and forced back against another wall.  He wasn't fazed, despite him being an ultimate like Necromamon.

  "No one defies me and gets out alive," said Myotismon.  He was extremely furious at Necromamon for standing up to him like that.  "CRIMSON LIGHTNING!"  he sent out a bolt of lightning, which hit Necromamon and forced him to slide across the stone floor.  It burned from the kidding and the blast of lightning.

  The sorcerer weakly attained his balance and clutched his staff for more balance.  Then he pointed it at the vampire demon, ready to use it against him.  "Let me return to my Wizardmon stage," said Necromamon.

  "You will never return to your Wizardmon stage," said Myotismon, evilly grinning.  "You will remain forever virus, serving me with the loyalty you should have shown five years ago!"  He prepared to attack.

  _Forever virus… Forver virus… _what Myotismon said echoed in Necromamon's mind.  Even if he had a Necromamon's body, he was still Wizardmon inside.  What if the viral appearance masked the gentle soul within?  What if all digimon saw him as completely virus?  Myotismon thought so, that was for sure.  And so did Demidevimon.

  "Oh boy, I love a cat fight!"  Demidevimon flew out of the way so he wouldn't be attacked.

  "I WILL NEVER SERVE YOU, MYOTISMON!"  the sorcerer was enraged at the way he had been attacked for his own good.

  "YOU WILL SERVE ME, NECROMAMON!" the vampire was equally enraged at the way Necromamon was defying him after he made him what he was.

  "NEVER!"

  "I ORDER YOU TO SERVE ME!"

  "BLACK THUNDER!"

  "NIGHTMARE CLAW!"

  Both attacks shot through the air and then hit each other in a huge ball of dark energy, going off in huge blasts.  One hit Demidevimon and made him just go SPLAT against the wall.  More hit the walls, and one hit Myotismon.  Necromamon thought fast and formed a shield around himself.  Each blast bounced off, but since he was already weak from the lightning, the shield grew weaker and weaker until it just disappeared.  Three large blasts hit him one by one, making the pain even worse than before.

  He collapsed on the ground from the pain.  He wished to de-digivolve, and that would make him de-digivolve for sure.  The sorcerer weakly raised his hands in a wave of pain.  He saw the battered-up and dusty grayish hands of Necromamon instead of Wizardmon's.

  In the midst of all this, he looked up and saw Myotismon holding a bolt of crimson lightning.  "Will you serve me?" he asked threateningly.

  Necromamon looked at the lightning bolt and felt like he had no choice at all.  "I will serve you," he declared weakly, and then blacked out.

To be continued…


	2. The Wrath of the Magical Sword

A/N: A HUGE thank you to Kyer, Sabrina Black, Jonah James Jamison, Shadow Rider, and Jes for saying all those positive things about my fanfic, and extremely special thanks to Kyer for asking about Wiz in ETRM, without that review chapter 16 would have been boring and I would have never started this.  I think I'll make this an angst fic too.  Too bad there isn't a third genre.  There's drama, there's action, and there's angst.  I like my new writing style.  I ought to do Wizardmon angst fics more often.  This next part doesn't concern my fic, but all the fics out there in general.  Sometimes the best fanfiction can have no reviews at all.  Life is good, especially when it's in cereal form.  Enough about me being like Confucius and now I'll be, like, the author.

Chapter 2: The Wrath of the Magical Sword

  Necromamon was now a lifetime slave for Myotismon, and it was because he was a virus.  If any of them knew about the vaccine within, he would surely be destroyed.  He knew about what being a slave was like because he had worked for the vampire demon when he was Wizardmon.  Now he was Necromamon, an ultimate, so things would change.  Punishments would be harsher, tasks would be harder, and Myotismon wasn't going to be as easy on him as when he was merely a champion.

  How the dark sorcerer longed to be Wizardmon on the outside again as he was introduced to the battlefield outside, where he had to fight and accommodate more territory lest he be locked away without food or drink.  He looked around the vast digital forest on Server and thought he saw something in the bushes.  He grabbed his staff and ran swiftly towards the source with hardly a sound.

  Nothing had shown up.  The sorcerer slipped through the thick trees, as silent as a cat.  He still wished he could be Wizardmon again, despite the fact that Necromamon was able to sneak around places silent enough so he couldn't get caught.

  There was a short rustling and a heavy breathing noise behind him.  Quickly— Necromamon turned around.  He found himself staring into a vast darkness.  That was when a pair of eyes appeared, all red and glowing.  Heavy breathing was heard as a warm gust of breath came from the darkness.

  "RRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"  The ear-splitting screech of Blossomon shattered the silence as the huge flower digimon stormed out from behind the trees, carrying a multitude of endless tangled vines and its small flowers.

  The dark sorcerer knew that the flower digimon was trying to protect its territory, and he decided to save himself by running away as quickly as possible.  Necromamon grabbed his staff and started running through the forest until his feet were sore and swollen, looking behind him to see that the Blossomon was still chasing him.

  _If I were still Wizardmon he wouldn't be chasing me_, he thought to himself as he started running even faster, using his staff to blast vines and rocks to bits and trying to hit Blossomon.

  Suddenly he looked behind himself and tripped over a root.  The usually well-balanced dark sorcerer fell to the ground and nearly bent his staff even more.  The flower digimon was right behind him, looking at him hungrily with his sinister eyes and drooling.

  "Please, just go away," said Necromamon weakly.

  Blossomon screeched, ready to devour his dinner.  He extended one long, green vine and grabbed his leg.  Necromamon was pulled back, grabbing onto tree roots and accidentally ripping his robes.  He grabbed his staff and decided that he didn't care whether or not he would claim more territory but just to save himself.

  "DARK SPELL!"  The sorcerer pointed his staff right at Blossomon's vine, which snapped right apart and freed him just long enough for him to stand up.

  Blossomon screeched and threw pollen right at Necromamon, getting it in his eyes so he couldn't see and in his way.

  The sorcerer tried again, this time right at the flower itself.  "DARK SPELL!"  It flew right at Blossomon and forced him back.  He just had to get Blossomon out of the way and teach him a lesson that was good enough so he'd leave all Necromamons alone.  He had done that when he was Wizardmon, and all his enemies, with the exception of one, had let him be.  "Leave, Blossomon," he said.  "BLACK THUNDER!"  A huge ball of black thunder shot out at the flower and made him crash to the ground.  There was a high screech of agony before the dark sorcerer witnessed Blossomon disintegrating right in front of his own eyes.

  "Oh my God," he gasped, stepping away from the place where the innocent digimon fell.  There was still the mark it had left when it landed.  "What have I done?"  His hands started shaking.  He dropped his staff, which hit the ground.  A profound silence fell upon the forest.  "I've killed an innocent digimon who was trying to protect its territory," he said to no one.

  _This can't be true,_ he thought.  _I don't know my own strength as an ultimate, and I've used it to destroy someone who was completely innocent.  Look at me, trapped in this body.  I need to be Wizardmon.  He would never do such a thing, and I would just make it so they're kept away from me.  But this?  No.  It's terrible, what I've done!_

  A crystal tear formed in his yellow eye as he knelt down to feel the ground.  It rolled down his gray cheek and onto the rocky soil.  He scooped up a handful of the soil and wondered if there was any data that could create a new Blossomon.

  _I must reverse time, back to the beginning.  I would go with Erika and Auramon, my brother.  I need them here.  But do they need me?  What will they say?  I don't want anyone to reject me, but after how I killed an innocent Blossomon I deserve to be rejected for all eternity._

  The soil fell from his hand back onto the ground as he grabbed the staff and miserably headed back to the castle.  But before he was nearing the mountains, he was spotted by the Floramons who were living in Blossomon's territory.

  "That's the one!"  A Floramon pointed a long vine at the dark sorcerer.

  "Yes, he killed our leader!  Now he must pay!"  Four Floramons surrounded Necromamon and started restraining him with his vines.  One took his staff away and hurled it to the ground.

  "MY STAFF!"  The sorcerer tried to break free, but the vines were just too strong.

  "You'll lose a lot more than your staff if we catch you around here, punk," said the first Floramon.

  "You don't understand," said Necromamon, who was beginning to get mad at these accusations.  "I'm innocent!"

  The Floramon started throwing pollen at him until he was coughing and telling them to stop.

  "Why are you doing this to me?" asked the sorcerer.

  "You killed our leader Blossomon," said the plant digimon.  "Now you must pay for your actions before things get ugly."

  "It was an ACCIDENT!" shouted Necromamon, trying even harder to break free from the grip of the vines.  "I didn't know my own strength!  You have to believe me!  I didn't mean to and… just understand me!"

  "Hey, I think he works for Myotismon," said one of the Blossomon.  "That's why he's destroying our leader."

  "No, it was nothing like that," said Necromamon.  "I don't want to work for him!  He's a demon!  He forced me into doing that and made me dark digivolve!  And now I'm a vaccine trapped in the body of a virus."

  "LIAR!!!  LIAR!!!" all the plant digimon shouted, pelting poor Necromamon with pollen until he let them whip him and spray him with pollen.  Finally, all the digimon disappeared.

  The sorcerer, being extremely weak, leaned on his staff for support and began the arduous climb up Belial Mountain, the mountain where Myotismon's castle was.  Finally, he reached a straw bed in the slave quarters and lay down on it, exhausted.

  _They didn't see through me,_ he thought.  _I know that if I had done the same thing as Wizardmon they'd let me go.  Why don't they understand?  Why the hell don't they understand?  What if they choose not to understand, and all they see is a nasty Necromamon?  If only the souls were seen.  Then I'd be a Wizardmon or an Incantemon inside.  Or what if I have the soul of a Necromamon that just hasn't gone through proper training?  What if I had meant to kill the Blossomon?_  He hadn't._  I don't want to fight, but why is it I always find myself getting into them?  I'm the one who should have been reconfigured._

  "You have performed your task well, Necromamon.  You have been truly underrated as an evil digimon," said Myotismon.

  Necromamon looked at the stone floor in shame.  He had destroyed an innocent Blossomon and now his master was praising him for it?  Because he was… evil?  When he was never meant to be.  The Bakemon had taken him there earlier.  He was wondering why he was there.  If he had any luck he would be free or given a potion to de-digivolve.  But the only thing that was close to potion in that room was that glass of dark red blood that the vampire demon was holding.  There he was, on some throne, ready to praise him for doing an evil deed.

  _I was never meant to be,_ thought the sorcerer.  _Wizardmon would never be underrated as an evil digimon.  If anything, I should be overrated as an evil digimon.  Why is it no one understands? _

  "I knew the potion was good for something," continued the vampire.  "Wizardmon would never be loyal enough to destroy the digimon that possesses the territory."  He sipped the blood.

  _I am Wizardmon, _thought Necromamon.  _What the hell am I, different?_

  "That Blossomon was innocent," the sorcerer spoke up.  "And I destroyed it."  His voice became choked up.

  "Excellent," said Myotismon.

  "I don't destroy anything," said Necromamon.  "I can't destroy innocent lives."  A tear started forming in his eye.  "And tortured for it being a complete accident as well."

  "Accident or not, it's a good mark on your record," said Myotismon, taking another sip of the blood.

  That made Necromamon furious.  He wasn't supposed to be spoken to like that, as if that accident hadn't done anything at all.  And being praised for destroying innocent digimon as well.

  "A good mark on my record?  A good mark on my record?!  You are the most insensitive, selfish, and above all, evil being I've ever known in my life!  I tell you, I may look like a virus digimon, but my soul is still a data, possibly now a vaccine.  You may be handsome on the outside, but your soul is the ugliest thing imaginable!"

  Of course, Myotismon had a different reaction than what the sorcerer had expected.  He glared at him with icy blue eyes and then gave a half-smile that revealed his white fangs.  He had a plan.   "You will serve me," he said to Necromamon.  "Forever, until the day you are reconfigured.  And seeing your attitude, that day is very soon indeed."  He finished the blood.

  "I'd rather get reconfigured than spend another day in this hellhole," said the sorcerer, brandishing his staff.

  "I see you'd rather fight me to the death instead of withering away in the prison," said the vampire demon.

  "Anything where I know you'll get a feeling of how it's like for me when I fight!  DARK SPELL!"  A huge blast of dark energy shot out of Necromamon's staff right at Myotismon, who escaped the blast just in time.

  "You wish to get reconfigured?  Prepare to die.  GRISLY WING!"  The vampire demon sent out his millions of bats on the sorcerer, who tried to keep them away with his Dark Spell.

  "Mere flying rodents won't stop me," said Necromamon as his robes were getting torn apart and he was trying to get rid of all the bats.  "I won't die until after I see you die!  DIE!  BLACK THUNDER!"  He sent that one right out at Myotismon.  It was a direct hit, and he crashed to the floor.  "Change me back to Wizardmon now, or you will die," he threatened.

  "Never," said Myotismon, struggling to stand up and teach the rebel a lesson he'd never forget.  "I've never liked you as Wizardmon, and I'm never going to like you as Necromamon, either!"  He stood up and produced a bolt of lightning, and then started advancing on the innocent dark sorcerer.  "You will obey my orders, slave!"

  The sorcerer held out his glowing staff, ready to attack again.  "I will never follow your orders as long as I live!"

  "So be it," said the vampire demon.  "CRIMSON LIGHTNING!"

  Necromamon didn't have time to escape the blast, and all he could do was shield himself with his hands.  Suddenly, a searing pain was felt on his face as the lightning hit him there.  He was shocked on his back and his legs so he couldn't move.  His staff was hit and stopped glowing.  He felt a small stream of something warm and wet running down his face as he realized the lightning had cut him and he was starting to bleed.  He held his hand up to the side of his face, took it away, and saw that it was covered with very dark red blood.

  "You will serve me, Necromamon," said Myotismon.

  This time, the sorcerer decided he would never serve the demon as long as he lived.  "Never," he said.  "I'd rather die."  He hung his head.  "Some day I will defeat you."

  Necromamon found himself locked in the farthest-away dungeon where many of the lowest slaves were kept.  He was extremely angry and sad at the same time.  As he laid on the hard mat of straw that covered a bit of the floor, he saw some clouds outside the window.  They all seemed to look just like Gatomon and Auramon and Erika… and himself.  As Wizardmon.

  _What did I do to deserve this?_ he thought._  I left for good, not evil.  I know this was for revenge._  He saw his reflection in a very dusty mirror.  A deep cut had run down the side of his face.  It would be a scar for life, as a memory from a dark past.

  Meanwhile, in the dark throne room, the evil vampire demon was plotting how to get rid of the innocent dark sorcerer.

  "No one dares defy me and gets away with it," he said to Demidevimon.

  "What do you want me to do, boss?" asked the little imp, flying around.  "I think I know what you want me to do.  How about we let him die!"

  "I know his secret," said Myotismon.  "He isn't a virus.  I know he's a Wizardmon within.  Keep him alive.  I love to watch them suffer."

  "Then how about we torture him until he acts like a virus," suggested Demidevimon.

  An evil grin spread across the vampire demon's face.  "Yes, yes…" he said ominously.  He strode over to the window, where it was night in the digital world.  The sky was black and there were small lights twinkling on the ground below.  He looked over the digital world.  "Those digital fools," he said to the outside.  "You pathetic digimon won't know a thing.  When Necromamon destroys you all, you will bow to me!  MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

  Necromamon awoke the next day to the loud banging sound of metal against metal.  Also, the windows had been covered by stone, so the sorcerer couldn't tell the difference between the deep darkness of the night and the darkness of the castle.  He drowsily looked at the door, which was wide open.

  "Who is it?" he asked, starting to wake up competely.  "Who's here?"

  "Locking you up here is of no use.  You will remain disloyal to me until you die," said Myotismon's voice.  Necromamon saw that Myotismon had released him from the cell.  "You must be made loyal."

  "I wish to remain disloyal and in the prison," said the sorcerer firmly.

  "Loyalty can give you your freedom," said the vampire.

  "I don't need to be loyal to you," said the dark socrerer, taking his staff.  "I can escape.  BLACK THUNDER!!"  He tried to blast a hole in the prison wall.  The lightning flew right at the wall with a huge explosion, as big chunks of stone flew out from where the attack hit.  He shielded his face as dust blew out as well.  After the dust cleared, he saw just more wall.  The sorcerer hung his head down in dissatisfaction.

  "As you see, there is no escape," said Myotismon, grabbing Necromamon by the wrist and dragging him out of the prison.  "Serving me will result in your freedom."

  "Change me back," said Necromamon firmly, escaping Myotismon's firm grip.

  "It's impossible to change you back," replied Myotismon, grinning evilly.  "I'm afraid you'll remain a Necromamon for life."

  "Change me back, dammit," said Necromamon.  "CHANGE ME BACK!!!!"

  "I, the all-powerful ultimate Myotismon, follow a SLAVE'S orders?  Seeing you suffer in that form is so delicious."  The vampire demon grabbed Necromamon's staff, which started to glow a red color.  "I see you're powerless without your staff.  Seeing that you are, I must destroy it."

  _Not the staff,_ thought Necromamon.  _Not the staff!_  "NOT THE STAFF!  MAGICAL SWORD!!"  He took out his sword and brandished it.  A beam of dark light shot out and hit Myotismon, making him fall to the ground and let go of the staff.  Necromamon pointed his sword at Myotismon's face and stared at him.  "Change me back or your oh-so handsome face will be scarred for life."

  "Is this a threat?" asked the vampire demon, not sounding worried about it.

  "This is a threat," replied the dark sorcerer.  He held brought the sword forward until the sword's sharp point was less than an inch from the evil digimon's face.  "Change me back or feel the pain you have given your henchmen."  And then he realized that he was a good digimon and couldn't be this intimidating.  He started to put the sword down, which was a mistake.

  "You are a foolish digimon to let your guard down like that," said Myotismon, preparing to attack.  "NIGHTMARE CLAW!"  The dark energy in the claw shape flew out at Necromamon, who leapt out of the way just in time.  Then the dark sorcerer tried to attack the Nightmare Claw with his sword.  It was slashed right in half.

  "Attack me again and this time YOU'LL be the one slashed in half," said Necromamon, holding the tip of the sword right in front of the vampire demon's face.  "I'll slash you so good they won't be able to put you back together."

  "I do not take that as a threat," said Myotismon.  "You'll have to do better than that, Necromamon."

  "RRRRRRR!"  Necromamon got enraged.  He got so enraged he took his sword and slashed as quickly as possible to show Myotismon he should be taking his threats more seriously.  He was seeing so much red he didn't exactly see what was being slashed.  He heard the metal-against-metal of the sword slashing the prison bars, and then the sword scratching the floor.  Then he came to his senses and stopped the slashing of the sword.  "That is a threat.  Seeing that the sword can cut through a prison bar that well imagine what it can do to a digimon like you."

  "GRISLY WING!"  Myotismon unleashed all his bats on the sorcerer, who tried to cut them apart as well with his sword.  As he heard high-pitched cries of agony as the bats were slashed apart and broken into pieces of data, the dark sorcerer heard the sounds of ripping cloth and more metal-against-metal.

  Necromamon caught his breath as he saw that all the bats were gone and how his sword had won the battle for him.  And suddenly he saw more than just bars cut in half and deep scratches on the stone that would be there forever.  In the midst of all the confusion, he had accidentally torn Myotismon's blue outfit and his gloves.  There were more slash marks in it than on the stone walls, so many it only looked like thin strips of blue cloth.  His pale skeleton-like body and hands were showing underneath.  Necromamon knew he would die for this as he saw this interesting sight.

  "My— Myotismon," stammered Necromamon.  "Your— it's all— it's been slashed!"  He looked at his sword and saw blue threads on it.

  The vampire demon glared at the sorcerer, then covered himself up with his cape.  "Prepare to die," he said to Necromamon.

  "Finally, the agony of being a virus will be over," said Necromamon.  "Death will be… the only way… to escape the pain of staying a virus."

  Hearing this, Myotismon had a different plan for the dark sorcerer who slashed his outfit apart and defied him, and above all, claimed to be a vaccine beneath.  One that would involve the other digimon.  He pulled his cape even tighter around himself as Necromamon stared at the scratched-up floor below his grayish feet and dark robes.  A tear flowed down from the dark sorcerer's eyes, fell onto the floor, and trickled into a crack.

To be continued…


	3. Finding Kari

A/N: Here are some more thank you's.  First, thank you's to Sabrina Black, Kyer, Shadow Rider, and Jes, but also to Chibi Myotismon, blackmage718,  Blackout12, and GameGirl.  May you all enjoy the next chapter as well.  Tell me if it needs a rating change, OK?  Sorry about the delay, I had writers block, and then there was my band's concert, and that little infamous science report about sickle-cell anemia…  And now for chapter 3 of Forever Virus!

Chapter 3: Finding Kari

  Kari fell asleep in her bed that night, with Gatomon purring herself to sleep near her.  "Good night, Gatomon," she whispered, pulling the covers close to her chin.  The soft pillow and warmth of the sheets helped her fall asleep quickly.  Kari drifted off into her deep sleep and the dream.

  Kari found herself standing in the middle of a cold, dark abyss, without Gatomon there to protect her.  She gasped as flames burned around her and licked the air.  "GATOMON!  HELP!" she squealed, but it seemed the cat digimon wasn't there to answer her.

  "Yes, little girl, call for help," said an unfamiliar voice as cold fingers touched the back of the young girl's neck.  Shivers ran down her spine as she turned around to stare into the yellow eyes that became black holes as she stared into them.  The eyes belonged to a dark sorcerer.  Everything about him— the dark robes, the wild black hair, the sinister staff, the gray skin, and the long, deep cut running down the side of his face— made Kari feel more and more frightened of him.

  "Who are you?" asked Kari with barely more than a whisper.

  "I am Necromamon," said the sorcerer.  "Your worst nightmare."

  "GATOMON!" Kari cried, backing away from the Necromamon in the dream.

  "Your Gatomon is no more, Hikari Kamiya," declared the dark sorcerer, spreading his arms into the air.  Above him, Gatomon was floating in the air.  She had turned a grayish-black.  Her mouth was open as if she were suffocating.  The worst part was that her eyes were open, but only the whites were showing, and the whites had turned a bright yellow.  "She is mine," said Necromamon, extending a hand to touch the young girl and make her dark as well.  "Come join me and Gatomon…"

  The cat digimon landed in front of the dark sorcerer and started glowing a yellowish color.  The glow took on a completely different shape and form as Necromamon laughed evilly.

  "Gatomon, dark digivolve to… LADYDEVIMON!  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"  A demon lady hovered where the once-vaccine cat digimon was.

  "MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" Necromamon laughed as the flames grew taller and redder.  Kari started to run away.  "YOU CAN NEVER ESCAPE THE CLUTCHES OF DARKNESS!" he bellowed.  "DARK SPELL!"  A burst of dark energy flew out of his staff and hit the ground, causing a whirlpool of darkness and shrill screams to emerge from it and swallow everything in its path, including the flames that were there.

  The girl started screaming and running with all her might as the whirlpool of darkness swallowed her up and made her drop at a tremendous speed as she screamed bloody murder at the top of her lungs, hoping that someone, _anyone,_ would come along and save her—

  She woke up in her bed, screaming.  Her heart was pounding faster than ever, she was breathing so fast it was as if she wasn't breathing at all, and beads of sweat had formed on her now-pale face.

  Gatomon opened one eye and gasped when she saw Kari was wide awake and screaming.  "Kari," said the cat digimon, pouncing on her lap after the girl had sat up.  "Kari, what's wrong?"

  "Oh, Gatomon!"  Kari hugged her digimon tightly, still breathing quickly.  "It was awful!  I— I had a nightmare!"

  "What's wrong, Kari?"  Kari's mom opened her bedroom door.  She was standing in the doorway with Tai and Kari's dad.  All three of them looked concerned about the screaming.

  "Mom!"  the girl began to cry.  "I just had the most awful nightmare!"  Mrs. Kamiya walked over to the bed and sat down.  Kari buried her head in her mother's shoulder and began to cry like she had never cried before.

  "Don't worry," her mother assured her.  "It will be all right.  It was all a dream.  Now try to get some sleep."

  Kari took her head away and laid herself down on the pillow.  Her mother stood up and left with her father.  Tai came over and sat down on her bed.  "Tai," the girl said to her brother.  "It was about a digimon!"

  "A digimon?"  The digi-destined's leader blinked.  "Who was it?"

  "It was some dark sorcerer," replied the girl.  "He said his name was Necromamon.  He made Gatomon dark digivolve and then he attacked me!"

  Tai sighed and stared at the ceiling.  "I think it's a sign," he finally replied.  "Whoever this Necromamon is, I think he's your enemy.  I think you ought to stay away from him."

  "I hope you're right, Tai," said the girl, shutting her eyes and drawing her covers and Gatomon closer to herself for protection.  Tai ran his hand over his sleeping sister's head and left the room.

  "The child believes Necromamon is the enemy, master," said Phantomon, bowing.  The ghost digimon was the one who had created the nightmare.

  "You created the perfect nightmare," said Myotismon.  "Humans… hearing them scream for their lives is so delicious."

  "Shouldn't you be the one attacking them in their nightmares?" asked Demidevimon, flying around the vampire demon's head.

  "That is a thought… but I've seen more suffering with Necromamon."

  "Anyone suffers with you around."

  "Ah, but those humans have never suffered as Necromamon has.  They have never been placed in the body of a virus digimon when truly their data or vaccine soul is within.  I love watching that digimon suffer."

  "Especially after he ruined your suit?"

  "I see that the Kamiya girl has plans to travel to the digital world tomorrow," said the ghost digimon.

  "I'll be ready for her."  Myotismon bared his fangs in a sinister grin.  "And so will my little victim Necromamon."

  That next day, Kari and Gatomon traveled to the digital world and met another digi-destined with a Wizardmon that was now an Auramon.  This digi-destined was about thirteen years old, had dark eyes and dark hair with blonde highlights, and was wearing a short red tank top, blue elbow-length gloves, a short blue skirt, and purple knee-length boots.

  "My name is Erika," she said to Kari.  "You must be Kari.  I got a signal last night that seemed like a sign.  I'm searching for something called Necromamon.  Have you seen one?"

  Kari's face grew pale and her eyes grew wide.  "Necromamon?"

  "She had a nightmare about that digimon last night," said Gatomon.  "She prefers not to talk about it."

  Sudddenly, there was a soft rustling in the bushes.  Four heads turned to see what was causing that rustling.  Erika and Auramon cautiously walked over to the bushes to find out the source of the noise.  As Auramon pulled a branch back, a black shadow shot out of the bush and into a tree.  So the teenage girl and her wizard digimon checked out that place.

  As Kari watched that, she felt as if something was behind her.  A draft floated around her body, starting at her spine.  The tingling coldness spread through her until she felt as if something was standing behind her.

  Gatomon looked behind herself.  "Kari!" she exclaimed.  "Behind you!"

  Before the girl could do anything, two cold, clammy hands clamped over her mouth, blocking off all the sound possible.  She squirmed to escape as she felt paralyzed because so may Bakemon were holding her tightly.  Erika and Auramon turned their heads and ran over to where the Bakemon were before they flew away with Kari and Gatomon.

  "They're flying to the castle," said Auramon.  "On top of that mountain over there.  We can still make it."  He floated in the Bakemons' path, Erika following closely behind.

  Hours later, on top of Belial Mountain, the Bakemon proceeded to put chains around Kari's neck, wrists, and legs so she wouldn't escape.  A chain was also put around Gatomon's neck.  Then the ghost digimon pushed the girl into the dark, musty, and above all, sinister castle, dragging the cat digimon with them.  She was led down the halls until she found herself in a room that resembled a medieval torture chamber, complete with a roaring fire and chains that held victims to the wall.  Kari and Gatomon were both attached to the wall as the Bakemon flew out.

  "HELP!" Kari screamed.

  Meanwhile, more Bakemon led Necromamon out of his prison and started pushing him down the hallway to the torture room.  "You have visitors," the ghosts kept saying until the sorcerer was led into the room, revealing Kari and Gatomon chained to the wall over a pit of flames.

  "No," gasped the dark sorcerer.  "Not Kari!  Anyone but her and Salamon… after all I've done for them!"

  "Now's the time to attack them, NECROMAMON," said another Bakemon, pushing the dark sorcerer forward and nearly making him stumble into the pit.

  "AAAAAAAAIIIIII!" screamed the young digi-destined.  "You're— you're the one in my nightmare!  DON'T HURT GATOMON!"

  "No!" the sorcerer barely squeezed out of himself, extending his hands towards the digi-destined and her digimon.

  "You're not going to get away with this, Necromamon!" Gatomon threatened.  "I know you're the one behind all this!"

  "You don't understand, Gatomon," said the sorcerer.  "I'm not who you think I am.  I'm good!  I'd never attack you!"

  "LIES!  HE'S LYING, GATOMON!" Kari squealed.

  "How can you think that, Kari?  I am Wizardmon!"  The sorcerer looked at his hands and his dark robes.  "I'm not Wizardmon outside, but on the inside I'm still your friend.  Why are you afraid, Kari?  I'll even rescue you!"  He pointed his staff at the chains as the Bakemon watched and snickered, waiting for the slip-up.  "DARK SPELL!"  The blast of dark magic shot out at the chains and made them loose enough so he could slice them open with his sword.  Then the sorcerer made cards with ancient Japanese symbols appear on them appear, and said an incantation to freeze the flames.  Seeing he hardly had any time left, he took his sword and sliced all the chains apart.  Then he took Kari and Gatomon in his arms and set them on the ground before the fire started again.

  "I never… LIAR!"  Kari looked at her arms, seeing long bleeding cuts in them where the sword had accidentally cut it.  Necromamon saw his accident and started tearing off pieces of his robes to tie around the cut.  Kari refused, and so did Gatomon.  They started running out of the castle, Necromamon silently following.

  The girl and the cat digimon fell asleep by a clear stream late that evening.  Necromamon silently walked over to Kari and bent down.  He took her arms in his hands and unbandaged them.   Seeing the long, deep cuts from his own sword, he took a handful of soil from the ground and recited a healing incantation until it sparkled like glitter.  He scooped up some pure water from the river and poured it on the soil.  Then he spread the mixture on Kari's wounds and re-bandaged them, hoping that Kari would know that he, the virus, had healed her.

  The sorcerer slipped away to wait for the young girl to awaken and see the miracle that had happened to her.  Kari was beginning to stir when Necromamon felt the presence of another being with him, this one darker and colder.  He shivered and drew his robes closer to himself as he saw the young girl's eyes open slightly.  He cautiously stepped out from behind the tree to show Kari that her wounds, the wounds his sword had given her, were healed.  Just as the girl was about to sit up and completely wake up, the sorcerer felt the strange sensation that something was wrong.

  "Kari…" Necromamon said softly.  "It's me, Wizardmon.  Only I'm in this—"

  Suddenly, without warning, a burning whip of lightning shot out of nowhere and hit him across his back, making him bend down in pain.  Another whipped his right arm, singing his robes.  Trying to put it out, the sorcerer pulled his staff-holding hand towards his robe sleeve and caused a huge beam of dark energy to accidentally shoot out of the staff and hit the ground mere inches away from where Kari and Gatomon were.

  "Kari!  Look out!"  The cat digimon pointed her tail right at Necromamon, causing Kari to look and scream at the top of her lungs, then quickly run away.  Gatomon stayed behind.  "LIGHTNING CLAW!"  She ran right up to the sorcerer and started slashing part of his robes and knocking him to the ground in the process.  "CAT'S EYE HYPNOTISM!"  She narrowed her eyes at the sorcerer, who fell into a trance and started throwing himself onto the ground.  "LIGHTNING CLAW!"  She scratched the innocent sorcerer across the face, finishing her attack.  "Don't ever hurt my Kari again, or I'm gonna digivolve and you're REALLY gonna get it!"  Gatomon scampered off, following her human partner.

  "Wait!"  Necromamon extended a hand as a familiar shadow loomed over him.  The sorcerer looked at the shadow and narrowed his eyes.  "Myotismon!" he exclaimed softly.  "I knew it was you.  Only you would whip me and make my staff cast a spell by accident!"  He stood up and brandished his staff, rage bubbling up inside him as he faced his enemy.

  The vampire demon showed no fear as he strode towards the enraged sorcerer.  "I thought you were loyal to me, Necromamon," he said softly.  "I can't be doing all the attacking for you."

  "I'd rather die a thousand deaths than be your servant," said Necromamon.

  "So be it," said Myotismon, preparing to attack with his Crimson Lightning.  Then he withdrew the beam, getting an inspiration.  "I know your secret, Necromamon."

  Necromamon grew pale.  _It can't be!_  "I have no secret," he lied, not about to tell any of his enemies the truth.

  The vampire closed in on the sorcerer, eyes fixed on his neck.  He was so close it was as if it was safe to be around him.  Then, in barely more than a whisper, he said, "I know you are a vaccine within."

  The sorcerer gasped, then backed away, unaware of the unwelcome gaze Myotismon was giving his neck.  "That's not my secret!  What the hell are you talking about?  I am a virus!  I have been a virus!"

  "I've known it ever since you fought me after you dark digivolved," replied Myotismon, still looking at Necromamon's neck in that hungry sort of way.  "I always thought you were free-spirited.  Now I know that after you freed the digi-destined brat and healed her wounds, I know you have the heart and soul of a vaccine."

  "Baka," said the sorcerer indignantly.  "So you know.  You're a lot smarter than I thought, BAKA!  You knew it so I would have to endure the pain and suffering of being like this!  BAKA!  BAKA!  DARK—"

  Before he could finish attacking, Necromamon felt two sharp points piercing the vein on his neck and felt the flow of blood from the wounds.  "And you have the blood of a young human," added the vampire demon as he drank the sorcerer's blood from the wounds.  "So sweet…"  

  Necromamon closed his eyes and fell unconscious again.

  _I remember that one day well, when I saw my brother Auramon again_, he thought to himself in the middle of a deep sleep.  _I promised to see him again.  "Remember me as I am," I told Auramon before he traveled to the real world to fight some other digital demon.  For days I waited until one day, Gennai came up to me and said that Erika and Auramon would return.  What will they think when they see me like this?  I know they'll react the way Kari had reacted, with the screaming and running away from me.  Why would anyone have a nightmare about me?  I know it's the way I look._  

  His reflection showed up in his mind.  

  _I look like a demon sorcerer.  I know that's what I am.  But why am I feeling compassion for others?  I know why.  I am not a demon sorcerer._  

  Another face showed up in his mind as the face of Necromamon disappeared.  It was his true face as Wizardmon.  

  _I am who that face is.  That is my true face._  

  The face in his mind became attached to a head, and a body.  The full body was holding the sun staff.  

  _I am you, Wizardmon.  I am you._

  The wizard digimon held up the glowing sun staff and let out a beam of yellow light.  The beam became a glowing sphere, enveloping the wizard's body and making it glow a brighter yellow.  The shape grew into a taller humanoid shape as the sphere grew bigger as well.  Wizardmon was now Incantemon.__

_  I should be you, Incantemon.  Now I am in the body of a demon sorcerer, without any hope at all._

  The sorcerer digimon walked over to where the dark sorcerer was in the vision.  "Digivolve with me," he said in a distant yet close voice that echoed through the dream.__

_  Yes, I will digivolve with you!_

  "Hold out your hands then."

  The sorcerer held out his hands as Incantemon put his now-glowing hands on Necromamon's slender gray hands.  He felt a slight tingling sensation as he saw that the light was entering his fingers and spreading down his hands at a fast speed, covering everything, even his robes, in a pure bright yellow glow.  Incantemon started to glow as well.  The dark sorcerer and the light sorcerer both grew until the light covering their bodies looked exactly the same shape and size.

  _Could it be?  Have I digivolved to mega?  Please let it be true!_

  The light was starting to dim down as the sorcerer was about to see his mega form for the first time.  He was able to make out the outline of a newly-digivolved Incantemon, and just as the light was about to disappear to reveal himself as a mega, the dark sorcerer woke up, staring at the stone ceiling of the dim prison cell.  He was himself again.

  "No," he gasped, looking at his robes.  "It can't be!  I— I was a mega!  I need to stay a mega!  A vaccine!  A data!  Wizardmon…"

  "There is a way, Necromamon," said Myotismon.  The sorcerer turned his head until he was staring into the ice-blue eyes of the vampire demon himself.

  "I don't know if I can believe you," replied the sorcerer.

  "There is a serum that can change your body back to Wizardmon's," said Myotismon.  "You will be a champion data for one day after you drink it.  Your true form, as you call it."

  "I need proof," said the sorcerer firmly.  He knew that he was not going to take any chances when Myotismon was around.

  The vampire demon held out his gloved hand.  In it was a small glass vial full of a glowing blue liquid.  "Take it," he ordered the sorcerer.

  Necromamon fixed his gaze on the vial.  "I'm not going to drink that until I know that you're not trying to poison me."

  "I knew it," hissed Myotismon.  He took the vial, opening it and a puff of blue smoke flew out of the vial.  The sorcerer could smell the unpleasant odor of the serum from where he was.  Then he kept his gaze unaverted as the vampire demon drank every last drop of the serum.  Suddenly, he began to change physically, right in front of the sorcerer.  He grew slightly smaller and younger.  His body became more muscular.  His skin became tan.  His hair grew longer until it went down past his waist.  The red mask changed into a silver helmet.  The blue suit turned into a shiny white one with different decorations on it, including a silvery-blue one that looked like the moon.  The cape turned into a metallic silver jacket that touched the floor.  The gloves became blue gloves, the boots became silvery-blue boots, and he was carrying a sword.  Two silver wings grew on his back and spread into the air.  "I take on the appearance of the champion digimon Aeronumon, the lower form of MoonAngemon.  I am still Myotismon," he said in a younger voice.  Then he grinned evilly.  The biggest difference of all was that he had no fangs.  "Now do you believe me?"

  "For now I do," answered the dark sorcerer.  "Yes, I will take the serum!"

  Aeronumon (Myotismon) held out another vial of the same blue serum.  The sorcerer grabbed it and opened it, causing it to let out a puff of blue smoke.  The unpleasant stench filled the air as he lifted it to his lips.  Necromamon drank the entire thing.  It tasted almost like poison mixed with a sorcerer's concoction.  As he swallowed the last drop, he felt a slight tingle in every part of his body as he shrank to a height smaller than a human.  His robes changed into the stitched yellow-and-red jumpsuit and the blue cape.  He felt a hat on his smaller head and saw his staff change into his sun staff.

  As the transformation ended, the sorcerer looked at himself in awe.  "Yes," he said in a voice that he had missed speaking in.  "I… I… I'm Wizardmon again!"

  "Enjoy it while you can," said Aeronumon.

  Wizardmon decided that he had finally found a way to be liked.  But for some reason, he still felt a vague emptiness inside him.  Was this really him?  He needed to find Erika and his Auramon brother and tell them about everything before it was too late.

To be continued…


	4. Data for a Day

A/N: Yes it's me again.  Another thank you to Avalon, Callisto Nicol, CheeseWizardmon, and only4gameboyadvance!!  Now for a few little responses to all of you and to one of the reviewers.  To all of you: No I don't hate Myotismon or Wizardmon even after writing this fic.  I'm just being different in my writing style.  Besides, I can support Myo-kun in all my other digimon fics.  To Jules Verne: You died over a hundred years ago.  You can't put me in the _Nautilus._  I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE!  To all of you again: I just have a ton of ideas for this.  It's going to be about a lot more than just Wizardmon, but he's still the main focus of our attention here.  Let's see what Athena-chan can do…  Now on with the long-awaited chapter 4!

Chapter 4: Data For a Day

  Wizardmon examined himself, positive he had undergone the complete 24-hour transformation.  He didn't feel like a true Wizardmon; it was a feeling which no serum ever concocted could ameliorate.  The young wizard did not feel miserable, but only slightly indigent.  Only two souls knew the truth behind his temporary transformation: Myotismon and himself.  He needed Kari and Gatomon, as well as Erika and his Auramon brother, to know about this before it was too late.

  Of course, the vampire demon, now the gentle Aeronumon, conversed with the wizard before he journeyed out into the world on his own to find his fellow digimon friends and their human partners.

  "Why are you acting this way towards me?" asked a suspicious Wizardmon.  "I know you know something I don't know."

  "Oh, I'm just growing soft," replied the winged man airily.  "For I am a data today.  Now leave."

  "I know you're up to something," Wizardmon spat out.

  "Leave, damn you," growled Aeronumon.

  _I know you are Myotismon underneath that disguise of an innocent Aeronumon_, thought the young wizard.  _I know you are up to something._  All of a sudden, two strong Bakemon picked him up and threw him right out a stone doorway into the main hall of the castle.  Afraid, the wizard ran with all his might out of the castle and made his way down the mountain that day.  He knew that he would return to his Necromamon form after the sun finished setting, because he knew that was when Myotismon had given him the serum.  If only he could find Kari and the others and tell them the truth…

  Wizardmon made his way out of the mountain range and stared at the dark castle that appeared to be so small, so far away.  If only it had been closer.  He felt as if he needed more serum to last himself through his lifetime.  As he entered the forest, he felt the presence of the Floramon.  As he saw the Floramon rushing out of their hiding places behind the trees to greet him, the young wizard felt condemned to know the wrath of their vines and pollen.  He braced himself for the pain.

  "Good day, Wizardmon," said a Floramon affectionately.  "Fancy meeting you here in our territory."

  "You wouldn't want to be here," admonished another of the plant-like beasts.  "A nasty sorcerer killed our leader and took over the territory for that no-good bakayaro Myotismon."

  At those words Wizardmon's heart sank.  They showed bias and prejudism as they were actually speaking dirty about him, what he had done.

  "He's nearly as bad as that demon," remarked another Floramon.  "They are both ultimates… they're both trying to conquer the digital world…"

  Now the wizard felt as if a heavy stone was in his stomach, getting heavier at each passing lie.

  "…and I bet you that Necromamon will be the second Myotismon.  The second he dies, Necromamon will take over."  The Floramon had concluded her thoughts on Necromamon, making Wizardmon have a dirty sensation in the pit of his stomach.  The stone had grown into a larger rock and was weighing him down even more.  It had grown into his heart as well.

  "No, it's not true," protested Wizardmon.  "None of this is true!"

  "Of course it isn't true," agreed another plant beast.  The wizard felt the rock lighten, and the sensation of sickness had gone away.  "Myotismon is undead.  You can't kill the undead."

  At that point, the rock became a boulder.  Wizardmon felt as if he were about to cry as every insult was thrown around casually, with the insensitive Floramon unaware that they were making snide remarks about him.  "It's all lies," he repeated to himself.  "It's all lies."

  "So you had better stay away from this place," warned a Floramon.  "If Necromamon or even Myotismon knows you're here they'll destroy you like they destroyed our leader Blossomon."

  "Necromamon knows I'm here," said Wizardmon.  "He heard everything."  He felt slightly ill and as if he had been tortured within.  "All those insults… everything.  I need to leave."  He quickly ran deeper into the forest next to the river, where he knelt down on the bank and contemplated his reflection in the crystalline water.  He saw the face of Wizardmon, not Necromamon.  His true face.  Still, there was something about him that was missing.  Or like there was something there that shouldn't have been there.  That was when he noticed the long, red-tinted scar running down the side of his face, mostly concealed by his cloak.  It was a sign that Necromamon was still within.  Maybe if he de-digivolved…

  The young wizard knew he had to keep his mind averted from the technicalities of the serum.  He closed his eyes and listened closely to the water rushing, a cool breeze blowing, birds chirping, and Floramon conversing among themselves.  A roar of faint laughter was heard occasionally, and Wizardmon knew they were poking fun at his ultimate virus form.  He looked at his reflection in the water again and thought he was seeing things, which he was.  Only he saw a faint reflection of Necromamon overlapping Wizardmon.  The wizard slapped the surface of the water, distorting the image and making slight ripples appear on the surface.

  "Wizardmon!"  He heard the ringing of Gatomon's voice in his ears.  Then, turning around, Wizardmon saw Kari and Gatomon standing behind him and grinning.

  "Good day, Kari.  Good day, Gatomon," said the wizard, standing up and walking over to the girl and the cat digimon.

  "Where have you been?" Kari inquired innocently.  Wizardmon felt as if he were being dropped off a tall cliff to find that there was nothing to break his fall.  "Gatomon and I haven't seen you in an extremely long time."

  "I've seen you yesterday," admitted the young wizard.  "You were acting afraid towards me, and Gatomon was extremely defensive."

  "Never!" the cat digimon exclaimed.  "Never towards you!  I know you were talking about Necromamon.  I know all about him.  Kari does because she had a nightmare about him the night before we saw him.  Necromamon has a dark soul and has the appearance to match.  He has this wild black hair, gray skin, yellow eyes, dark robes, and carries a sinister staff like yours."

  "He works for Myotismon," added Kari.  "He's like his apprentice or something."

  Wizardmon had the exact sensation he had felt when the Floramon were talking about him.  He knew he had to tell Kari and Gatomon sooner or later.

  "Come, Wizardmon."  The cat digimon motioned in a different direction.  "We must tell you something we know you'll love.  Erika and Auramon will be there as well."

  Now the young wizard had extremely mixed feelings about telling his four only real friends and companions about the serum and that he was forever virus.  Forever Necromamon.  That he was the one in Kari's ominous nightmare.  If he told the truth, the feeling would be off his chest and he wouldn't feel guilty.  On the other hand, Auramon, Gatomon, Erika and Kari might be afraid to go near him.  They might fight against him, or worse: shun him from their lives and try to forget about him, even after he might be able to de-digivolve to Wizardmon for real.

  Meanwhile, Aeronumon knew about the way the young wizard would try to admit to his friends the truth behind his Wizardmon-like appearance.  He knew he had to prevent him from doing so.

  "Bakemon," he said to his minions in Aeronumon's voice, "are you prepared to do your duty?"

  "I have a question, Master Myotismon," said Demidevimon.  "What are you trying to do to him?"

  "A life of misery," was the disguised vampire demon's reply.  "What I will do is try to keep those digi-fools busy so our little victim is unable to tell them the truth about himself.  And then when they find out that Wizardmon is Necromamon, they will leave him no choice but to obey my orders.  Of course, if the digimon had gotten through to him, I will have to resort to more… drastic action.  I know exactly what digimon to send on them first."

  The time was mid-afternoon after the young wizard had been traveling all morning and met up with Kari and Gatomon in the early afternoon.  Now it was mid-afternoon, with not too much time left to tell them the truth.  He decided to tell them so when he had the chance.  He, the girl, and the cat digimon met Erika and Auramon on a cliff which overlooked Server's desert, just close enough to the forest.

  "Isn't it beautiful?" asked Gatomon.

  "Hi, Wizardmon," said Erika, grinning.  Auramon merely nodded in agreement.

  The feeling was now as if he were about to burst open.  Wizardmon needed to tell them.  "I— I— I need to tell you something," he forced out of himself.

  Gatomon blinked.  "Really?" she asked.  "We have something we'd like to tell you too."

  "Yes," agreed Erika.  "It's time that you should know this.  We all missed you and have been searching for you for months, and Kari and Gatomon finally found you today."

  _Not today,_ thought Wizardmon.  _You found me yesterday.   And then you ran away…  And look.  Just because I look like Wizardmon again, too.  If you saw me as Necromamon you would just shun me like the Floramon did.  _

  "Well," Erika began, excitedly, "as you know, everything has just gone along just fine, and I'd like to announce that I'm gonna be a digi-destined!  And you're gonna be an honorary digi-destined digimon to us.  You've been such a good friend to us… well, it's a real honor.  And we can possibly find a way to help you digivolve!"

  _Digivolve… digivolve… _the words echoed through Wizardmon's mind.  He had that sinking sensation again, this time he was sinking faster than usual.  And there was no bottom.

  "What's wrong, Wizardmon?" wondered the cat-like digimon.  "You should be happy.  What's wrong?"

  "Yes," agreed Auramon.  "You've never been this quiet before.  Even for someone like you you're quiet."

  Wizardmon didn't want to admit it to the others, but since they were his friends, he began to speak.  He took a deep breath and admitted, "I have a secret.  A painful one that's been eating away at my soul, weighing down my heart.  You need to hear it before it completely destroys me, or it destroys you."

  Kari blinked.  "What is it?" she asked.

  "Yes, you can tell us," the older girl agreed.  "We're your friends.  We can take it."

  The young wizard knew he had no choice.  "Things aren't always—"

  *CRASH!*  His confession was interrupted by a loud crashing noise.  It was followed by another one which was even louder than the first.  Every stomp got louder and louder and made the ground shake underneath them.  Finally, they saw the source of the shaking ground and the crashing footsteps.  It was the vile, nasty Tuskmon, a towering green tusked dinosaur which was one of Myotismon's henchmen.  The tusked dinosaur was sent on the group of five to prevent Wizardmon from making his confession.

  "It's Tuskmon!" Auramon exclaimed.

  Tuskmon roared an ear-splitting roar, making the ground vibrate.  "SLAMMING TUSK!" it seemed to be roaring, rushing towards the girls and their digimon.

  "We know what to do," said Erika.  "Save your strength, Wizardmon."  She held out her digivice, enveloping her Auramon in a lavender light.

  "Auramon, digivolve to… WIZARDMON!"  The light grew and paused in a Wizardmon shape, but it didn't stop there.  "Wizardmon, digivolve to… INCANTEMON!"  Incantemon stood before Tuskmon, preparing to attack.  Wizardmon felt his heart sink lower than the deepest trench in the sea.  He could have been an Incantemon.

  Gatomon also started glowing, but it was a pink color.  "Gatomon, digivolve to…"  The light grew into a human shape with wings.  "ANGEWOMON!"  The angel flew over them and picked up the two girls and the wizard, flying off the side of the cliff, and then setting them on the ground.  "I can't let you get hurt," she told them.

  "INCANTATION: FIRE!"  The sorcerer of light let out a blast of flames from his staff, which hit the dinosaur and forced him back until he was on the edge of the cliff.

  "HORN BUSTER!"  The dinosaur's second attack hit Incantemon right in the chest and forced him back onto the ground from the pain.  He struggled to stand up, but his chest was in so much pain he couldn't even move without feeling the sharp spasms.  He whimpered for one moment, then de-digivolved back into Auramon.  "Angewomon…" he gasped.  "Help!"

  The angel flew up the side of the cliff, leaving Erika and Kari alone with Wizardmon.  They were too enthralled in the battle going on that they hadn't noticed the three-dimensional shapes hidden on the side of the cliff.  But the young wizard had.

  "CELESTIAL ARROW!"  Angewomon drew back her arrow made of pure light, drew it back, and shot it right at the dinosaur, who fell onto the ground in more pain than Auramon after the arrow pierced his side.  Greenish-red blood flowed out of the puncture wound and trickled onto the ground as he moaned in pain.  "Here, Auramon," she said, flying over to the rookie wizard and trying to heal his wounds.

  Meanwhile, the two girls were staring at the top of the cliff, wondering what was happening.

  "I think Angewomon's in trouble," said Kari worriedly.  She started to climb up the cliff, with Erika assisting her, leaving the young wizard alone to watch them.

  He thought he was seeing things as a part of the cliff began to move.  He kept his breath still, trying not to blink.  All of a sudden, before he could say anything, Bakemon were surrounding him, grabbing his staff, grabbing him around the legs, and clamping his mouth shut so no sound could escape.  They flew off with him at lightning speed just as Erika noticed that was happening.  She turned around and saw her friend being carried off by the ghosts.

  "INCANTEMON!  ANGEWOMON!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.  Angewomon turned her head around, grabbed Auramon off the ground, and flew down the side of the cliff, where she saw Erika and Kari looking as if they just received the news that somebody just died.  "Wizardmon's gone!"

  "Wizardmon's gone?!"  The angel felt more oppressed than she appeared.

  "We need to find him right away," said the young girl.

  "Only where to start… he could be anywhere!" Erika exclaimed.

  Suddenly, a shadow loomed over them from the air, cast by a winged man against the gradually setting sun.  His silvery wings were spread in flight and his long blonde hair was flying behind him.  The winged man landed on the ground in front of the two humans and two digimon.

  "I hear your friend is missing," he said.  "Is there any way I can help?"

  "Yes!" the four of them exclaimed.

  "What is your name?" wondered the young wizard.

  "They call me Aeronumon," said the winged man, grinning.  "I know where your friend might be.  Follow me."

  Meanwhile, the ghosts had carried the wizard to a cave and heaved him into it, where he landed a hard landing on the pure stone floor and hit the wall.  They shoved a giant boulder over the opening and placed his staff in front of it so he couldn't reach it through the small opening for air.

  "Let's see if your friends can find you now," cackled one of the Bakemon, flying off.

  "And if they do, it will be too late!"  The rest flew off so quickly they were white blurs.

  "No!" Wizardmon cried, reaching out of the hole, trying to grab his staff.  The rock was so high above the ground and his arms weren't long enough, so it was impossible to grab hold of it.  Seeing that the sun was sinking in the sky and everything was tinged yellowish-orange, the wizard knew he didn't have much time left to escape and tell everyone.

  Hours passed, and knowing that his staff was completely out of reach, he sank onto the smooth, cold floor of the dark cave and just gave up.  Finally, he thought he saw the stone move as reddish-purple light streamed into the cave.  Seeing his friends gave him a wave of relief.  He didn't see Aeronumon, however.

  "Wizardmon!" Angewomon exclaimed as she and Auramon bounded him in a reunion hug.  "I'm so overjoyed we found you!"

  "Actually, it was Aeronumon who had a sense of where you were," added Kari.

  "Aeronumon?" asked the wizard.  "HE helped you?  Something's up…"

  "What was it you wanted to tell us?' asked the wizard's brother.  "And I noticed, why is there that scar on your face?"

  "It reminds me of something," said Kari suspiciously.

  The wizard knew he was cornered.  He had to tell them before the sun completely set, which wasn't too far away.  "Well," he began, "things aren't always what they seem.  I AM still Wizardmon, but there is something you—"  he began to cough and sputter as the sun completely sank and the serum wore off.  "Something you should know about me—"  Suddenly, he began to change.  He grew bigger.  His hat disappeared.  His hair grew longer and changed into a blackish color.  His jumpsuit and cloak changed into dark robes.  The metamorphosis concluded with the staff transforming from the sun staff to the moon staff.  He was Necromamon once again.  "I was forced to dark digivolve into this," he told his friends.

  Kari screamed bloody murder and tried to run away, but tripped over a vine.

  "IMPOSTOR!  IMPOSTOR!  WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH OUR FRIEND??!!"  Even Auramon was against him.

  "No," Necromamon pleaded.  "I am your friend.  I was forced to dark digivolve."

  "Who forced you?" asked Erika.  "Yourself?"

  "By me."  Aeronumon stepped into the moonlight.

  "But you're so nice!" Angewomon exclaimed.

  "Things aren't always what they seem," said Aeronumon, grinning.  Suddenly, two white fangs protruded from his mouth.  "I am not Aeronumon."  He was speaking in a different voice.  The transformation Necromamon had seen reversed itself, and Myotismon was standing where the gentle Aeronumon stood a few seconds earlier.  "I am Myotismon!  MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

  "That's it, fang face," said Erika.  "What have you done with Wizardmon?  I know you're involved in this plan somehow!"

  "Ah, I see you're smarter than you thought," said the vampire, motioning towards Necromamon.  "He's standing in your presence."

  Kari looked at the dark sorcerer.  There was something strange about his eyes that seemed very familiar.  "But all I see is—" she began, then realizing something.  "No.  No!  It can't be!  NO!"  She began to cry.  "Wizardmon!  You're evil!"

  "Don't believe that, Kari," pleaded Necromamon before he was cut off by Myotismon.

  "I'm afraid your pleas aren't completely understood, Necromamon," said the vampire, advancing on Kari, who slowly backed away.  He floated behind her and set his hands around her neck, digging his sharp nails into her flesh and piercing it.  "Your friend or your life.  What's more important to you?"

  Kari cringed as she felt blood flow down her neck and the nails digging deeper into her skin.  Still, she could see something about Necromamon… something she hadn't seen before.  Those weren't the eyes from her nightmare.  The eyes were compassionate and full of light despite the darkness outside.  Could the sorcerer be telling the truth about himself?

  "LEAVE MY FRIEND ALONE!" the angel screamed, zooming right at Myotismon, who instantly produced a whip of his Crimson Lightning and forced Angewomon to hit the ground so hard she hurt too much to attain balance and wasn't able to get up without feeling pain.

  "Your little angel cannot save you," said Myotismon, closing in on Kari.  He was either going to drain her blood or strangle her to death if the sorcerer didn't do something.  "You must choose between your digi-destined friend or your life."

  "Save me!" Kari gasped as she was enclosed in the vampire's cape.  She could feel the presence of the cape around her as the heavy dark material was wrapped around herself.  She felt herself dying and knew she didn't have much time left before her life ended.

  The sorcerer knew he had no choice.  He had to rescue Kari or else she would die not knowing that he was actually good.  He took a deep breath and replied straightforward, "I choose Kari and choose to end this miserable life as a virus."

  "Done!"  Myotismon let go of Kari, who fell to the ground.  He grabbed Necromamon by the wrist.  "You made a very heroic choice," he said.  "Too bad it's your last choice as well!"

  Necromamon hung his head as the other four realized something they hadn't realized before he made his vital choice.

To be continued…


	5. The Incantation of Wizardmon's Fate

A/N: Well, Athena-chan's back from her little vacation in Tennessee!  I missed writing the fanfics but this is SO worth-it!  Don't worry if it's a little short; I haven't written anything for about a week and I need to get back into the zone, if you know what I mean…  Oh and the spells aren't in languages from Lord of the Rings, I sort of made the language up myself.  And don't worry, I'm not killing anyone off in here.  Thanks to Myotismon13 for another great review!  ^_^  Here's chapter 5 of Forever Virus!

Chapter 5: The Incantation of Wizardmon's Fate

  Necromamon was about to die for the others, but none of the others, not even Auramon, knew it.  Now he was back in the vampire's castle on the top of the mountain, about to face the death penalty.

  "Your friends cannot save you, Necromamon," said Myotismon as a Bakemon clasped a cold metal chain around the sorcerer's neck, nearly cutting off his much-needed air.  "Your decision cannot be changed either."

  "Bakayaro," muttered the sorcerer.  "Heartless fiend!"  He grabbed the metal leash and pulled as hard as he could, but it wouldn't work.  _The staff! _he realized.  He reached for the much-needed staff, but the vampire, as if he could read Necromamon's mind, grabbed the staff and held it as far away from him as possible.  As Necromamon tried to withdraw his sword to slay Myotismon in his tracks, the same Bakemon snuck up behind him and cuffed his hands together so it was impossible for them to reach the sword.

  "I see you're helpless right now," said Myotismon as he tried to keep a straight face, but couldn't withhold his elation as he watched the sorcerer struggle to get free.

  Rage started bubbling up within the sorcerer as he tried with all his might to free himself from the bind of the cuffs and the chains, and the Bakemon pulling the chain on his neck made him start to gasp for air.  Finally, he was thrown onto the ground, and his hands couldn't break his fall because they were chained behind his back.  Necromamon landed extremely hard on the floor as he felt as if all his insides were being compressed and like his ribs had shattered into pieces.

  "Not strong enough to hit the ground, are you?" cackled the ghost digimon.

  Suddenly the vampire just couldn't contain himself as he watched the helpless sorcerer hit the ground.  The second he saw Necromamon look up from his fall with tears in his eyes, he started to laugh "MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" and it echoed throughout the room.

  "I see YOU'RE enjoying this," remarked the sorcerer.

  "I do believe I am," replied Myotismon, taking the sorcerer's beloved staff and holding it far away from him.  Necromamon tried to break the chains and reach for it but it exceeded his grasp.

  _Why?_ he asked himself.  _I know Myotismon is just enjoying the sight as I appear to be no more than merely a cat to him.  A cat you tease for enjoyment, and then watch it suffer as it can't reach its coveted prize._  The sorcerer gave up trying to grab the staff.  He knew the chains were unbreakable and even if they were, he wouldn't be able to get the staff.

  "Shall we execute him now, master?" asked the Bakemon, yanking on the chains and nearly pulling Necromamon's head off and making him slide back against the hard floor.  Now the sorcerer was growing extremely frightened and pleaded "Never!" in his eyes.

  Unfortunately for Necromamon, Myotismon had other plans for him, and that meant throwing him into the pit.  And not throwing, but chaining him to the bottom and getting lowered into a pit of flames.  Every digimon on Server was afraid to defy the vampire and meet their deaths by flames.

  Myotismon studied Necromamon, eyeing the desperate look in the sorcerer's own eyes and how afraid he was at that point.  _The pit would be the most worthy punishment for Necromamon, _he thought.  _A slow but painful death… exactly the way his life is now…_  "Bakemon?"  He glared at the ghost digimon and exposed his fangs in a sinister grin.  "Show the sorcerer to the hell pit."

  The sorcerer gasped.  "Not the pit," he managed to squeeze out as the chains tightened around his throat and the Bakemon pulled on him on the floor.  "Please… take pity on me… never the pit!"

  Suddenly, about ten more ghost digimon flew out from behind the arched doorway and formed a barricade around Necromamon.  Two of them swooped down and forced him to stand up.  In the midst of all this, two of the Bakemon parted to reveal Phantomon, carrying an old scythe.  Necromamon could see dried red stains on the tarnished silver, and knew it was blood.  The ultimate-level ghost digimon flew over and held the scythe less than an inch away from the sorcerer's neck.  Necromamon was too afraid to even tremble.

  "Back away, Phantomon," dictated the vampire.  "I don't want Necromamon to die before he reaches the pit."

  Reluctantly, the phantom moved his scythe about three inches away as Myotismon made his way through the Bakemon barricade and stepped up to Necromamon's face.  The sorcerer felt slightly discomfiting as he felt the chains being grabbed by a stronger hand, then feeling the hand pulling the chains closer to himself.

  "If I hear one word of contradiction, Necromamon, I'll see that Phantomon beheads you," said Myotismon.  Necromamon refused to utter a word, yet felt provoked to do so as he felt himself being pushed forward, the scythe not far away from himself.

  Meanwhile, in the forest, Kari was being healed by the enchanter.

  Erika ran her soaked hands over the young girl's wounds, trying to wet them down and clean them.  The blood started to run into the water as the older girl, under Incantemon's direction, picked a single leaf from a medicinal plant known as the _Antangaeas_, or Anta for short, in Digiworld.  She ran the Anta leaf over the left wound to dry the water and blocked most of the blood from flowing out.  With a slight squeal, Kari felt herself heal.  She turned her head the other way around and let Erika do the same thing.

  "Why can't you de-digivolve?" wondered Gatomon as she held the young girl's hands.

  Incantemon stared at the summit of the mountain, seeing the minute speck that was the vampire's castle.  He got a vague thought as energy from the staff sent potent surges through his fingertips.  The surges quickly rushed up to his mind, where images flew through it, almost as if he was seeing the near future in real life.

  "What is it, Incantemon?" asked Erika.

  But the enchanter was in a deep trance, seeing everything clearly and distinctly.  He envisioned Myotismon— he had chained Necromamon's hands to the wall of a hell pit, and then he had backed away, forcing the flames to shoot up nearly to the ceiling.  He heard the faint evil laughter as he struggled to break free.  The staff— the staff had been thrown in, but the sorcerer couldn't grasp it…

  "Incantemon!" the cat squealed.  "What's wrong?"

  The images grew more vibrant and flashed before Incantemon's eyes.  He couldn't de-digivolve, for he knew there was a reason.  He knew.  Necromamon was getting burned, as he tried to break free.  The searing hot metal burned his wrists down to the bone, and Incantemon could actually feel the burning.  As his robes burned brightly within the pit, the dark sorcerer looked pleadingly into the good sorcerer's own.  It was then Incantemon saw Necromamon's soul…  Wizardmon!  Wizardmon had been condemned to the pit.

  Suddenly, the dark sorcerer let out a scream as the flames enveloped him and—

  "BROTHER!" Incantemon wailed, reaching out a hand.  Suddenly, he awoke from his trance, pale as a sheet and staring at the castle.

  "Incantemon!  Why can't you digivolve?" asked Gatomon, laying a paw on Incantemon's foot.

  Incantemon caught his breath and collected himself.  "Wizardmon," he replied.  "Wizardmon is the one!"

  "What?" asked the other three.

  "It's the… Wizardmon is Necromamon… and Myotismon… he… he… he's about to kill him!"

  Erika gasped.  Gatomon closed her eyes.  Kari stood up.  Incantemon merely muttered an incantation and transformed his sun staff into a winged staff.

  "We can arrive there in time and save Wizardmon… my brother… all of us can," continued the good sorcerer.  "Come, we must fly."  Erika jumped on behind Incantemon after he got onto his staff.  Kari and Gatomon also got on.  The wings magically spread and the four took flight into the air.  They neared the castle and it grew larger.  Incantemon could see inside the castle and saw an image of the pit and Necromamon being led to it slowly.  "Over here," he said, directing the flight towards that very room.  They could see the window not far away, and the window led to the room down the hall from the pit.

  "Why are we in here?" wondered Erika.

  "Wizardmon is here," replied the sorcerer of light.  He bowed his head, as if he could see the path.  "There is still time, and I must maintain my ultimate stage."

  "Why?" asked the cat digimon.

  "There are Bakemon," replied Incantemon.  "And I must prevent the death from occurring.  Keep the Bakemon busy, Gatomon.  Wizardmon's fate rests in my hands, and in turn yours because you must defend us from Bakemon."

  The cat gulped and caught her digi-destined's eye.  Kari nodded in acknowledgement, gripping her Crest of Light.

  All of a sudden, they felt as if they were being watched.  The two humans got the sensation that dark, glassy eyes were staring at them.  One or two pairs glinted and reflected the sunset that filtered in through the window… onto the wall… onto the ragged white sheet of a Bakemon… there were five of them, sent by the demon to stop Incantemon from reaching the dark sorcerer in time.

  "Oh my God…" Kari gasped as she saw the ghost in front of her.  "Bakemon!" she cried.  "RUN!"

  "LIGHTNING CLAW!"  The cat jumped out in front of her human before the ghost could attack them.  Her sharp talons were swiped right across the Bakemon's face, causing the sheets to rip.  More and more ghosts swooped out from their shadowy hiding places to defend their fellow Bakemon.

  "DARK CLAW!"  Five of the Bakemon counterattacked the cat, knocking her flat onto the ground, bruised and battered from five different hits.  As each one hit her, she grew limp and her mind cried out to Incantemon and the Crest of Light for help.

  The sorcerer of light raised his staff, about to attack the ghosts, who showed no fear.  "INCANTATION: FIRE!"  Blazing flames lit up the chamber and lit the ghosts' white sheets on fire so it looked as if there were five fireballs floating in midair before they dissolved.

  The other Bakemon, furious at the loss of five of their kind, started attacking Incantemon with all their might.  Over twenty "EVIL CHARM!"s echoed throughout the chamber as attack after attack hit the sorcerer of light and started to weaken him.  The ghosts proceeded onto the girls, first hitting Erika and making her fall flat onto the floor, then Kari.

  "You leave Kari alone!" coerced the cat digimon.  Suddenly Kari's crest began to glow a soft pink color, and the pink flooded the room and filtered right into Gatomon's body, causing her to glow the same pink color as Kari's crest.  Feeling power flood into her body, Gatomon began to stand on two feet and grow taller and into more of a human shape.  "Gatomon, digivolve to… ANGEWOMON!"  Where the cat digimon once lay on the ground, an angelic woman with six wings was standing.  Light flooded into the room, causing the Bakemon to shield their eyes and lose their coordination when they tried to attack.  "Now, Incantemon, now!" she cried.

  The sorcerer of light ran down the hall, followed by Erika.  The Bakemon knew that even though they outnumbered the angel, they stood no chance against her.

  "So, you wish to play?" Angewomon asked the Bakemon, who backed into one corner.  "Light always triumphs over darkness."  She gathered the light from Kari's crest and made an arrow out of it.  "CELESTIAL ARROW!"  She let go of the arrow and shot it right into one of the Bakemon, who immediately dissolved.  The other ghosts flew away, afraid they would suffer the same fate.

  "I'm glad we got rid of them," said Kari.  "We need to find a way out as soon as Incantemon rescues Wizardmon."

  The dark sorcerer had been led into the room, where a large, dark hole was in the floor near him.  The Bakemon barricade was still around him and Myotismon still had his staff, but he was confident he wouldn't die.

  "So, Necromamon, do you have any last words?" asked the vampire, waving his hand and summoning Phantomon.

  "Yes I do," replied the sorcerer.  "I know I will be rescued."

  "How touching it is to have hope, when all your friends have abandoned you…"  Myotismon had backed away from the ghosts and the sorcerer, the sorcerer's staff in hand.  Necromamon could see some sort of throne in the darkness of the room.  "Chain him to the inside, Phantomon!"  He sat down in the throne, still holding Necromamon's staff.

  The phantom took his blood-stained silver scythe and hewed apart the chain around the sorcerer's neck, with Necromamon feeling the hot blade within an inch of his neck and the sharpness as it came close to piercing the skin.  The chains were broken apart along his wrist, and new cuffs were attached with his hands brought around to the front of himself.  The evil vampire witnessed the entire ordeal with the chains, darkly chuckling to himself as he gripped the staff tightly, as Necromamon cringed as he felt the torture of merely being chained.

  Suddenly, the sorcerer was paralyzed by Phantomon as he was dragged across the stone floor and lowered into the dark hell pit.  Phantomon attached the chains of the handcuffs onto a clasp on the wall of the pit.  The pit smelled strongly of ashes and burnt flesh and blood.  Necromamon felt a pile of ashes near his feet as he looked around himself.  The phantom flew up and out of the way.

  "He is restrained, my lord," he said to Myotismon.

  "Excellent," said Myotismon, walking over to the hell pit and holding his staff over Necromamon's head.  "I see you are nothing without your staff, but seeing you struggle to reach it is more delicious than the sweetest blood.  I believe I must take pity on you."  He hurled the staff into the pit, far away from the sorcerer, who glared at him.  "I must see this," said the vampire as he sat down in his throne, withdrawing a viewing orb from thin air and seeing an image of a frightened Necromamon.  "Start the fire, Bakemon!"

  One of the Bakemon took a torch off of a hallway wall and threw it into the hell pit, making the entire pit burst into flames.  Necromamon saw the flames get near him, and he knew he was going to die.  The flames licked the air above, and the heat grew from pleasantly warm to sweltering hot to unbearable within seconds, and Myotismon was savoring the moment as he saw everything in the viewing orb.

  "I must get the staff!" he said quietly as the flames nearly obliterated the staff from view and bathing everything a bright yellowish-orange.  The heat of the chains binding him to the wall was searing, and his wrists felt as if they would melt.  Then he felt like he was on fire and saw his robes getting singed, so he tried to hit them against the wall so the flames would be put out.

  As he saw what he was doing, he realized he had a sword and if only he could find a way to cut the chains… if only… he remembered how the bars of the prison were slashed apart, and the metal in the castle was the same no matter what it was used for.  Necromamon knew he had to take a chance as he slid down onto the floor and felt as if his feet would burst into flames as the fire crept along the floor towards them.  He was perspiring from the unbearable heat and knew he had to keep his mind off of it…

  The sorcerer bent his head down and knew he could grab the hilt in his mouth and try to cut the chains apart.  The pain was worse than the heat as he struggled with all his might to grab the sword.  His feet pushed up on it, and he was close.  Finally, just as the flames started burning his feet and sandals, he felt the taste of warm metal in his mouth and knew he got his sword.  Gently he stood up and took the sword out of its case.  Taking careful aim, Necromamon tried to saw the chains apart and got halfway through when he felt his robes getting singed again.  Desperately, he started sawing through and felt the chain break free.  He took the sword into his right hand and slashed the other chain apart.  He was free from the wall.

  "Damn!" Myotismon shouted, pounding the arm of his throne.  "I should have taken away his sword!"

  "He'll never survive the fire, Master," assured one of the ghost digimon.

  Suddenly, another voice rang out from not too far away.  "I see you're enjoying this torture, fang face!"  It was Erika standing on the other side of the pit with Incantemon.

  "Let Wizardmon go or you'll regret it," threatened the sorcerer of light.

  Myotismon went over to where the digimon and his partner stood and grabbed Erika by the wrist.  "You'll make a lovely addition to my elite forces, digi-destined," he said, drawing closer.  He eyed her neck and could catch the scent of rich blood within it.  Erika could feel cold breath against her neck as she was about to get bitten.

  "Incantemon!" she exclaimed.  "Save yourself!"

  Incantemon grew outraged, knowing that both his brother's and his partner's lives were in jeopardy.  "Leave them alone!"  He pointed his staff right at the vampire, who started to back away, still holding Erika.  "INCANTATION: WATER!"  A stream of water shot out at Myotismon, forcing him back and making him hit the wall, which cracked under the great force the water had.  Erika was slightly soaked, but Myotismon was drenched and steaming mad.

  "That's it, you're going in next!  GRISLY WING!"  He sent out a throng of bats at the sorcerer, who was ready for the attack.

  "INCANTATION: FIRE!"  Fire shot out of the staff, making the bats burst into flames and dissolve.  "So, will you surrender?"  Seeing no sign that the vampire would surrender, he decided he had no choice.  "INCANTATION: WATER!"  He tried the water attack again, which blasted a hole through the wall and sending Myotismon flying right into the moat below.  "We have that problem taken care of," he said as the Bakemons and Phantomon flew away.  "And now for the fire.  I'm going in, Erika."  He sauntered over to the hell pit, took a deep breath, clutched his staff, formed a shield around himself, and flew into the flames below.

  Necromamon was nearly suffocating from the black smoke as he stepped closer to the staff.  He could almost feel it this time… he could feel its power… just a bit more.  Finally, he grabbed it and kept it in his grasp.  Then he muttered an incantation that would freeze the flames.

  _"Ta bluaz ofnu hélri tanré morid fàrron,_

_  Oro bekoni ori knovlusi."_

  It was an incantation recited in ancient Digimon language inherited by the ancient mega form of Wizardmon when the guardians were only in-training and Gennai was a child.  It meant, "A flame from hell must freeze, I beckon my spell."  A blue beam of light shot out of the staff and froze a few flames, but not enough.  He tried again.

  _"Ta bluaz ofnu hélri tanré morid fàrron,_

_  Oro bekoni ori knovlusi."_

  Still, only a few flames had died down just as more flames blew at Necromamon's face at full force, his mind crying for help.  He decided to concentrate for one last time.  Incantemon saw him and knew exactly what he was thinking.  He joined in the incantation as two voices became one:

  _"Ta bluas ofnu hélri tanré morid fàrron,_

_  Oro bekoni ori knovlusi!"_

  The two paths of freezing light joined together and spread throughout the pit, freezing the flames and ceasing the fire.  The dark sorcerer laid eyes on his brother and felt a whoosh of relief overcome his entire body.  The sorcerer of light laid eyes on what Wizardmon had become, with his dark robes and a crystal tear rolling down his ash-stained face.

  "Thank you, Incantemon," Necromamon said softly.  "I owe you my life."  He was so weak then, he collapsed right into his brother's arms, who floated up and placed him on Myotismon's throne.  Angewomon entered the room.

  "You saved him!" Erika exclaimed.

  "I see you didn't need my assistance after all," said the angel as she de-digivolved.

  "Where's Kari?" inquired the sorcerer of light.

  "She's in the hallway," replied the cat digimon.  "And good day to you, Necromamon.  I am so sorry we doubted you were Wizardmon underneath."  The dark sorcerer didn't hear her, because he had fallen asleep.

  Incantemon laid his hand on Necromamon's forehead and read his mind.  "He's been miserable for the past few days," he told Erika and Gatomon.

  "I'll say," remarked Erika.  "Myotismon's been really nasty lately, even for him."

  "It isn't Myotismon," said the sorcerer of light.  "My brother— he's miserable for being a virus.  He has wanted to die many times for it, and even de-digivolve, but the potion he was given made it impossible to do so."

  Gatomon's heart sank, as she felt compassion for her friend.  "So… he can't change back to Wizardmon, even if he wanted to?"

  "There was the serum," said Erika.  "But it didn't work out too well."

  "No," Incantemon replied quietly.  "He can't change back.  I'm afraid he's forever virus, and there's nothing we can do about it."

  _There is something I can do about it,_ thought the cat.  _If he can't be put out of his misery by changing back into one of us, and he's going to suffer, I believe he and I must suffer together._  Gatomon got the inspiration to do an incredibly heroic deed, even sacrifice her own likeness, to help Wizardmon.  She quickly dashed out of the room.

  "Damn you, Incantemon," growled the vampire as he sat in his throne, in an incredibly foul mood.  "Why did you have to come and throw me in the water like a lowly servant?"

  Demidevimon flew away, not wanting to be attacked by anything.  Just as he reached the door, there was a small knock.  "Someone wants to see you, master," he declared.

  "Send them in," said Myotismon.  "And I hope they're not those damned digi-destined children or good digimon."

  The doors parted open to reveal Gatomon.  She walked over to the towering throne and took a deep breath, knowing her decision would be the right decision.  How hard could the life be?

  "Oh look," teased the imp.  "I see you're crawling back to us.  Couldn't take the life of a good guy, huh?"

  "Shut up," said Gatomon, glaring at Demidevimon.  With wide and audacious eyes, she began to speak.  "Myotismon?  I wish to put Necromamon out of his misery.  Make me a virus digimon like him."

To be continued…


	6. Lady Myotismon

A/N: Athena's on a roll!  Thanks for the EXCELLENT review, Devidramon!  I don't know what TDE is but I know I made Auramon up.  That must have been pure coincidence if there was another story with Auramon as Wiz's rookie.  And Jes, PLEASE don't scare me like that! (J/K).  CheeseWizardmon (and whoever else asked, I remember CheeseWizardmon asking), your answer is in the title!  OK, so this concept isn't too original, of Gatomon digivolving to this stage, but there is a lot of original stuff in here.  Credit to GameGirl because one of her fics inspired me.  And… well… the crappy computer shut down because of a stupid power failure, so don't mind if the descriptions aren't as detailed as they are in the other chapters, OK?

Chapter 6: Lady Myotismon

  "I wish to be forever virus," said Gatomon, firmly and undenying it.

  An artificial expression of astonishment played itself across Myotismon's face.  _I know she'd do anything to save her friend,_ he thought.  "Did you say you wished to be a virus?"

  "Yes," replied the cat.  "I wish to be Necromamon out of his misery."

  The astonishment melted away to reveal the true expression the vampire had: a feeling of sinister conquest.  He had won, and the transformation had gotten to Gatomon.  "You are a very noble young digimon," he told her.  Suddenly, a Bakemon flew out with metal shackles to put around Gatomon's neck and had a chain on it, like a leash.  "Let me lead you to your home.  We don't want you to escape before you undergo your magnificent metamorphosis."

  The cat hadn't expected to be chained to anything or have shackles put around her neck; all she had expected was to drink the potion and change straightforward, without a question.  _Why?  Why couldn't I just have that potion to get it over with?_  Tears started froming in her eyes as the shackles were clasped around her neck and she felt the frigidness of the metal through her fur.

  "Bakemon, take her to the prison!" the vampire dictated.  He wished to be left alone to make just the right potion, for Gatomon's dark digivolution would be special.

  Gatomon glared at Myotismon, not caring about how much he dispised her eyes and how many scars she had received for staring at him.  She felt a slight tug and felt herself choking as the ghost flew ahead and started tugging on the shackles as if it were a leash.  She stumbled slightly, then walked along to keep up.  Suddenly, she felt the scalding heat brush itself across her backside as she was whipped with a bolt of Crimson Lightning.  She clenched her teeth, taking the unbearable pain.

  "Faster, Bakemon!" commanded Myotismon as a red glow formed around his hand.

  "Come on, Gatomon," muttered Bakemon as Gatomon was pulled forward and was dragged against the stone floor.  She felt more pain as the part of her backside that was whipped was being dragged across.

  Gatomon knew she had enough, and she had to escape.  "LIGHTNING CLAW!"  She tried to scratch away at the chain the Bakemon was tugging, but nothing worse than a few minute scratches appeared on the metal.

  "You can't escape for your decision was final," the ghost reminded her.  The cat grew indignant at the fact that she didn't drink the potion and get it over with.  She thought that something was not right, and she was being locked up for a reason.  She gained her balance and walked along, her leaden heart dragging her behind.

  "Kari!  Kaaaaaaa-riiiiiiii!"  Erika's cries echoed throughout the stone hallways, and no answer came.  "Incantemon, I need help!"  She ran back to the torture chamber, where the sorcerer of light was treating the dark sorcerer's wounds.  Necromamon was still asleep on the throne, his head supported on one arm, his body draped over the seat and his legs resting on the other arm of the throne.  The after effects of the hell pit were visible as pink and red burn marks appeared on his grayish skin, covering most areas on him.

  "Erika," said the good sorcerer, "my brother is almost healed.  Have you found Kari?"

  "Well, I'm afraid Kari's lost, Incantemon," admitted the teenage brunette.  "I didn't see her in the hall or anything.  Finish so you can help find Kari."

  "Be patient, Erika," said the good sorcerer, scooping up a handful of ground healing root and sprinking it on his brother's burns.  As the refreshing cool sensation rushed over the pink burns and they began to lose their color, their stinging made Necromamon wince and begin to wake up.  "I am glad you've awoken."  He rubbed the last of the root over Necromamon's face and all the burns turned back to the regular color and disappeared.  "How do you feel?"

  "I feel just fine," the dark sorcerer quietly replied as he gazed around the room.  "Where is Gatomon?  Wasn't she here a few minutes ago?"

  "She left for some strange reason," replied Erika.  "Maybe she took Kari with her."

  The good sorcerer reached for his staff and closed his hand over it.  The second he did so, it felt as if warm surges were rushing through the staff right into his mind.  As the surge traveled up his arm, Incantemon knew he needed to know what happened.  The surge embedded itself in his mind and he closed his eyes without trying to, for he was falling in a trance.

  He saw a cold dark prison cell, with Kari crouched in to a cold stone corner, afraid and crying for Gatomon—crying for Angewomon to come and rescue her.  Incantemon felt as if he were in the cell with the bearer of light herself, feeling the coolness of the stone, the musty smell of the cell, and even felt her desperation.  Still, Kari wasn't reaching out for him.

  Suddenly, gray slouds of smoke billowed around him and subsided to reveal an image of Gatomon being submerged in a grayish-red liquid and becoming not more of a shadow.  The image became even more vibrant as he saw the cat becoming a shadow, standing as straight as an iron rod and not showing any signs of drowning.  The liquid became a waterspout, rotating at a slow speed and shooting up seven feet into the air.  As that happened, Gatomon grew taller into a more humanoid shape that wasn't Angewomon, or even Ladydevimon.  Two piercing icy blue eyes glowed through the spout of liquid and stared right into the sorcerer's, sending shivers down his spine.  As the liquid was about to reveal the new digivolution, the sorcerer closed his eyes and was about to faint to the ground.

  "INCANTEMON!" Erika screamed.  "What's wrong?"

  The sorcerer opened his eyes, the room spinning around him in a whirl of grays and reds.  In the midst of it, he saw his human partner gently laying her hand on his, compassion in her eyes.

  "He was in a trance," said Necromamon.  "Tell me, what did you see?"

  The sorcerer hesitated, slowly came to his senses, and replied shakingly, "It's Kari… she's in a prison cell.  We must find her, Erika.  Come with me."

  "I must be the one to find Kari; I was the one who caused this to begin," petitioned the dark sorcerer.

  "No, you must rest," replied Incantemon.  "Erika and I will find Kari."  He and his human partner left the room, leaving the dark sorcerer alone.

  The sorcerer of light and his human partner flew down the hall, searching for Kari's prison cell.  They descended down the steps into a darker hall full of large stone cells guarded by alert Bakemon, who were now asleep.  A few were snoring on the floor, with their keys gripped tightly in their sheet-covered hands.  Incantemon closed his eyes and a signal came to him from a cell next to the only empty one, which was hundreds of feet down the hallway.  There was a mound of drowsy ghost digimon in the way.

  "We must be silent if we must get to her," whispered Incantemon.  Erika silently nodded, and they tiptoed gently on the stone floor and heard the faint sound of dripping water in the distance.  As they got closer, the signal in the sorcerer's mind got stronger.  But it seemed to be creeping up from behind them.  It wasn't Kari.

  Erika looked behind herself warily, hoping Necromamon was the one who was following them.  She could smell the strong odor of musty sheets with traces of rotten meat.  Every few seconds the odor of rotten meat overpowered everything.  They heard exhaling behind them and turned around to see three Bakemon floating behind them, handcuffs in their hands.

  "BOO!" they shouted, clasping the handcuffs around Erika's and Incantemon's wrists and carrying them through the air to the empty cell.  They hurled them into the cell, and they crashed against the wall to the ground.  Black dust filled the air and clouded their lungs as they tried to breathe.  Erika felt a warm river of blood run down her forehead and realized she had been scraped, while Incantemon saw that the ghost digimon had stolen his staff.

  "My STAFF!" he shouted loudly, nearly rupturing his voice box as the ghosts hurled it to the ground, nearly shattering it.

  "Incantemon?" asked a faint voice.  "Is that you?"

  The sorcerer closed his eyes and had a vision of the young digi-destined through the wall.  She was sitting in the cell next to the two, alone and curled up against the wall.

  "Kari!" the teenage digi-destined called out.  "Incantemon, you were right about everything!  Still, who's going to save us?"

  The sorcerer bowed his head.  "Our only hope now is Necromamon.  He will know about me."  He shut his eyes tightly and concentrated.  It was as if he were speaking to his brother.  _Necromamon… brother… if you're awake, please come and help us.  We are in a heavily guarded dungeon since the Bakemon are now awake.  I know the past few days have been a struggle for you, but please save us, and Gatomon.  She is missing, and so is Kari, but Erika and I found Kari.  You must free us before it's too late._

  The dark sorcerer hadn't been able to fall asleep because he had the sensation that something terrible would happen to not only himself, but everyone who was involved with everything.  Gatomon… Erika… Kari… his own brother… all of them, he knew, would be involved.  Gatomon would be involved the worst of all.  Suddenly, he felt as if his brother were talking to him.  He heard every desperate word, every single plea.

  "Don't worry, Incantemon," he told his brother.  "I'm coming to save you!"  He weakly stood up, feeling as if he hadn't walked in years.  He clutched the arm of the throne as he took the first few feeble steps, then he gained balance as he walked over to the edge of the pit and took his staff in hand.  The sorcerer felt its warmth and openness as he grasped the long metal rod.  Without looking back at the room, he gently leapt out with bursts of energy and reached the door.

  As he touched the door, he withdrew his hand.  He felt as if he couldn't go into the hall for some strange reason.  _Why?_ he asked.  _Why can't I do this?  I need to save my brother!  I can't be turning evil, am I?_  Suddenly, he reached out in front of him and gently opened the door a crack.  His dark red eyes peered out into the empty corridor, and seeing that the coast was clear, he set a foot outside.  Cautiously, he emerged from the torture chamber and gazed around.  Something was not right.  He remained tense as he completely emerged, but relaxed.

  "FLAME CHAIN!"  Skullmeramon's cry, followed by his attack of binding the victim in a chain of flames, sounded throughout the halls.  Before Necromamon could react, a chain of white-hot flames was wrapped tightly around him, binding his arms to his sides and causing him to fall against the wall.  After suffering the impact he had felt, he felt the scorching heat against his body and cried out in agony, feeling as if his skin were being stripped off at once and having acid poured on it.

  "Why Necromamon," said another voice.  Necromamon cringed and saw Myotismon standing near him.  "I see you have survived the pit.  I am glad you could drop by."

  "What do you want?" asked the sorcerer through clenched teeth, trying to keep his mind off the excruciating pain from the Flame Chain.  "Are you going to give me a potion to turn me into a mega-level dark demon?"  He flinched as the fire made his robes melt against himself and felt himself bleeding from the pain.

  The vampire saw how much pain Necromamon was in and craved seeing more.  "Bind the chains tighter, Skullmeramon," he ordered.

  The fire demon nodded and tightened the chains around the sorcerer's waist.  Dark red blood stained the robes around the tightened area, and the sorcerer cried out in pain.

  "PLEASE!  LET GO!" he cried out, feeling worse pain than he had felt in the pit.  He took his staff and concentrated, trying with all his might not to scream bloody murder in the middle of the spell.  "_Hydrao tanré xeisànite!  Hydrao tanré xeisànite!_" the sorcerer clamored, focusing on extinguishing the flames, for the spell meant "Water is life."

  A stream of water shot out of the staff and extinguished the flame as steam billowed into the air and a loud hiss escaped the steam.  The vampire cursed under his breath.  More water was splashed on the burns on the sorcerer's arms, back, and waist, which were red-raw and bleeding and very sensitive to the touch.

  "Bind him up in the normal chains, Skullmeramon," commanded Myotismon, who was now more wrathful than Necromamon had ever seen him.  "And to you, if you don't do as I command, I shall personally see you become my permanent attack target."

  The fire demon hurled a long silver chain at the sorcerer, and it tightened near where the burns were, and part of it landed right on the burns.  The sorcerer winced as he felt its harsh touch against himself and felt slightly nauseous from the pain he was going through.  Suddenly, he was pushed forward and stumbled along the path as he was led to an old laboratory with no windows and covered in dark gray stone.  In the middle was an empty black cauldron suspended over a pit of flames, now inactive.  Covering the walls were wooden shelves upon wooden shelves of vials and beakers full of strange liquid, neatly kept piles of strange ingredients, and ancient spellbooks written in an old text, some of which in an obscure language.

  "Why am I here?" questioned Necromamon.

  The vampire glared at him, strode over to a shelf, grabbed a metal-bound red spellbook with yellowing pages, opened it, and thrust it in the sorcerer's face.  Written on the yellowed paper in black ink was a recipe for a customized metamorphosis potion.  Skullmeramon undid the chains, grabbed the staff, and cuffed the sorcerer's hands together.

  "Necromamon," said Myotismon, "as the only sorcerer around this castle, you are the only one who is truly able to concoct this metamorphosis potion."

  The sorcerer shot him a look full of malice before his hand started glowing.  Even the fire demon produced a flame chain as a threat.  He decided he had no choice.

  "Demidevimon will be assisting you," continued the vampire.  The imp flew into the laboratory and saluted.  Then he cackled, seeing the sorcerer in handcuffs.  "Now create the dark-digivolving potion before Skullmeramon chains you up in flames."

  The sorcerer winced and stared at the shelves full of potions.  Then he looked at the text, which was written as a dead language with potion names which were obscure even to a sorcerer like himself.  But he did know that it was a dark-digivolving spell as well as a transformation spell.  He saw a huge vat full of saved dark-digivolving potion.

  "Skullmeramon, pour the dark-digivolving potion into the cauldron and start the fire," he reluctantly directed.

  The fire demon grunted as he lifted the heavy vat and poured every last drop of the brown liquid into the cauldron.  He let a small fireball fly out from his fingertips, and orange flames shot out from under the cauldron, filling the room with a slight warmth as they crackled in the air.

  "For special metamorphosis," he shakily translated (knowing that if he got the spell wrong, Myotismon would surely kill him in the most painful way), "the most vital ingredient is the dried root of the… the…"  He stopped, wondering if such a digimon existed anymore.  "The dried root of the… SpiceVeggiemon…"

  Demidevimon flew over to one of the shelves, studied the labels intently, grabbed a glass vial with a brown powder inside, and dropped it into Necromamon's hand.  "Hee hee, it's extinct now!" he exclaimed.

  Necromamon read on, collecting glass vials full of clear, ill-smelling liquids and a small corked bottle containing nothing more than a few drops of an odorless liquid which glowed an unearthly green color.  There were solid ingredients like dried yellow flowers, red crystals, and even the small preserved liver of a rare lizard digimon.

  Then came the most arduous task— measuring everything out.  Did the word _demiionsa_ mean _scruple_ or _dram_?  A trail of sweat trickled down the sorcerer's forehead as he racked his brain for the answer.  He finally remembered that the translation for _scruple_ was _miniionsa_.  Then his hand shook as he sifted the powder onto an old-fashioned metal scale and desperately tried to reach the right weight.  The scale seemed to blur in front of his face, making his work extra difficult.  And Myotismon practically breathing hot breath down the back of his neck made the task even more burdensome.

  He scooped up every last speck of the powder and carefully sifted it into the brew, turning it a brilliant blue and abruptly bathing everything in the room a fluorescent blue for three seconds before a puff of blue smoke billowed into the air and the concoction so far began to boil, turn gray, and fill the air with the scent of spice and grass mixed with the stenchful dark-digivolving potion.

  The next thing that occurred was to correctly measure out the other ingredients and put in the correct amount of drops.  He shakingly counted every drop that dripped out of the vials.  He added the right number of flowers and dropped the liver in at the right time.  The mixture changed colors, from saffron yellow, to black, to black mixed with a deep crimson, to stone gray.

  "The mixture must boil for five minutes, no more, no less," read the sorcerer.  "The transformation is open to customize the likeness of the victim— VICTIM??!!"  Necromamon blinked and looked terrified.  Then, seeing Skullmeramon and his fire chain, he decided not to take any chances and resumed his reading.  "And to transform the victim correctly, the correct potion of physical appearance is vital."  He shakingly turned the page, causing a few flakes of paper to fall out of the book.  There were different potions to determine the physical appearance and the soul within.

  "I'll take it from here, slave," said Myotismon, taking the book out of the sorcerer's hands, leaving him and Skullmeramon to watch the potion in its final stages.  He went over to the shelves, running his finger along it until he finally came to the one he desired to add.  He found the exact ingredients he needed for Gatomon's transformation.  Then he muttered an incantation.

  "_Conimasina té metarii ei ori psaton…  Metarii, clumiait ori dipeiti!  Debau, DOMÉ!!"_  He poured every last drop of the liquid into the mixture, causing foul stenches and sweet fragrances to erupt from the cauldron into the air and mix together.  Then the vampire read every last word, searching for the type of transformation he wished to give Gatomon.  "To give the victim your own likeness, add to the potion three hairs from your head and six drops of your blood…"  He plucked three blonde hairs from the three stray bangs that always hung in his face, and he removed his glove and pricked his finger with his fangs, squeezing six drops of dark reddish-purple blood into the potion.  Then Myotismon put the three hairs in the mixture, with a puzzled Necromamon wondering why he was doing all this.

  The second the last hair was dropped in, the potion boiled and sent black smoke billowing into the air, clouding the entire laboratory and obliterating Necromamon's view.  The lights went out, with the only glow coming from the cauldron.  Bright red light glowed from the potion, bathing the entire area in a bright crimson.  Myotismon looked especially sinister as the light reflected off his pale face and he was evilly grinning.  He took a large vial and dipped it into the mixture, which had turned a reddish-gray color.  The steaming vial was corked as the fire died down and the smoke disappeared.

  Necromamon coughed and saw the fire demon swinging his fiery chains and the vampire with his potion for Gatomon.  Suddenly, his handcuffs were put on a chain, which Skullmeramon held.  The sorcerer felt a disturbing wave of heat wash over him as the fire demon grew closer towards him.

  "Take him to the throne room," dictated Myotismon, putting his glove back on and tightly holding the huge vial of potion.  "It's the best place where he can see the transformation."  He darkly chuckled and exited the room, with the fire demon following behind him, tugging on the chain and holding the staff far out of reach, nearly melting it.

  _Incantemon… oniisan… brother… _thought the sorcerer, concentrating.  _Please… if you're out there, listen to me!  I cannot rescue you; I am bound in chains and my staff is far out of reach.  You must escape the prison on your own.  I have faith in you, I regret having to make the potion for transforming Gatomon, but my life was at stake and I had no choice… I must rescue you, and I promise if I ever escape these chains—_

  The sound of a slamming steel door awoke him from his delivery of the message to his brother.  He found himself being locked into a large enough cage to stand in, with Skullmeramon welding the lock shut by melting it.

  "Phantomon, bring me the victim!" commanded Myotismon from his towering throne.

  The phantom burst in through two tall doors and flew along the red-and-gold carpet, dragging Gatomon along the floor.  Gatomon was chained up and struggling to break free.

  "GATOMON!" screamed the sorcerer, stretching his hand and forcing it between the bars of the cage, squeezing the burns and making them bleed again.

  "Necromamon, I thought you would understand," said the cat, looking at him with her cerulean blue eyes.  "It pains me to know you can't be a data again, so I will change myself so we can suffer together.  If I must be Ladydevimon, then so be it!"

  Tears streamed down the sorcerer's gray cheeks out of misery.  Gatomon, who had saved his life, was about to do yet another noble deed just for him.  And this was more than saving a life; it was sacrificing her own likeness to be a virus like him.

  Phantomon floated up to the vampire and took the vial of reddish-gray liquid out of his hand.  Then he dropped it at Gatomon's front paws and uncorked it. Steam rose up into the air as the cat eyed it suspiciously.

  "I always knew you would try to poison me, Myotismon," she said.

  "It's not poison," said Myotismon.  "It's the key to your transformation."

  Necromamon screamed out in his mind for Gatomon to not drink it, for it must have been poison.  Still, Gatomon eyed the vial and lifed it up, bringing it to her mouth.  The sorcerer pleaded for her not to, and even started shaking his head and mouthing "Don't do it!" to her.  The cat might have caught her friend's eye because she backed away.  Myotismon shot her a dirty look, mumbling something to the phantom.

  "I thought you wanted to be a virus, Gatomon," said Phantmon in his eerie voice, flying over to where the cat was and bringing her into an upright position with her mouth wide open, petrifying her and pouring the contents of the vial, every last drop of it, into her mouth.

  "NO!" Necromamon screamed.

  Coughing and sputtering, Gatomon swallowed every last drop, and a strange feeling overcame her from head to toe.  Her tail disappeared, and so did her precious tail ring.  Her fur fell out as she gasped for more air.  Suddenly, Gatomon grew taller and into a human shape.  A red light engulfed her, making her only a shadow seen by Necromamon.  The vampire was watching the transformation intently, anticipating the outcome he had planned.

  "Gatomon, dark digivolve to…"

  The shadow in the red light appeared to grow into a woman, with what looked like a shadow of a cape preventing anyone from seeing the other physical transformation.  Finally, the red light disappeared to reveal Gatomon's new dark digivolution.

  "LADY MYOTISMON!" she exclaimed in a different voice that sounded a lot like Ladydevimon's.  She had pale skin and waist-length blonde hair, and was wearing a red-and-black cape that looked like her male counterpart's joined together by a ruby clasp, a revealing blue sleveless mini-dress that looked a lot like Myotismon's suit, elbow-length red gloves, tall black boots, and even a red mask.  Lady Myotismon grinned, revealing that she also had fangs.  Necromamon gasped at this sight.

  "What have they done to you?" he finally managed to ask.

  "Necromamon…"  The vampire lady went over to the sorcerer's cage and knelt down.  She started to cry and tears fell on Necromamon's hands.  "I wished to be like you…  I'm still Gatomon within."

  The sorcerer stared into Lady Myotismon's eyes.  Her eyes were the very eyes of Gatomon, the bewitching cerulean blue eyes that gave a view into her gentle soul.  Still one thing was on his mind.  _Will Kari know?_

To be continued…


	7. The Past and the Present

A/N: Well no new reviewers to thank this time, so thanks to all the reviewers and stuff.  To Calli: Yes, I am evil.  Mwahahahahahahahaha!!!!  J/K.  I thought it would make an interesting story if I made everyone's favorite cat digivolve into Myo's female counterpart.  Pleeeeeeeease forgive me!!!!!!!!!!  To Shadow Rider: Thanks for the non-pointless review.  It helps to have the author read over ur shoulder, huh?  To CheeseWizardmon: Mayo-tismon.  That's a new one.  To Devidramon: Your idea worked!  Thanks!  To everyone: Here I am with another chapter.  Sorries SO much about the delay! And BTW, the slight changes in the 01 storyline are because this is an AU fic based on another AU fic of mine.  That should clear some things up.

Chapter 7: The Past and the Present

  "Your eyes are telling me the truth," said the sorcerer, sticking his hands through the bars of the cage, struggling to get the thoughts of LadyMyotismon's digi-destined and what she would think out of his head.  "I see you are Gatomon."

  "But will Incantemon see?" the vampire lady asked with barely more than a whisper.

  "I must warn him," replied Necromamon.

  "How will you?" wondered Lady Myotismon.

  "Well, milady, how do you feel about your new life as one of the undead?" asked Myotismon.  "We must celebrate your transformation."

  The sorcerer's face was swept with a mixture of anger, fear, and disgust with this transformation Gatomon had gone through.  He had remembered the day he met Gatomon as if it had been yesterday.

  He had been exiled from the vampire's castle for defying him and succeeding in battle against him.  He had de-digivolved to Wizardmon and had found himself lying limply in the sand of Server's vast, arid desert.  All his joints ached from combat and his thirst ached for water.  As the sun beamed down upon Wizardmon's fragile body, he grew even weaker and more parched from the heat.  His dark cloak and thick jumpsuit made the heat especially unbearable to him.  The grits of sand slid into his clothing and the feeling was extremely discomforting.

  The wizard thought he heard voices as he squinted in the white sunlight.  It sounded just like the small, high-pitched voice of a digimon he had heard, possibly even seen before.  Water, any liquid at all, would have been anywhere another digimon was.  With his joints and muscles aching and being nearly immobile, Wizardmon took his staff and tried to stand up.  Weakly, he leaned on the sun staff and used it as a crutch for his entire body.  The wizard pushed himself up to where the staff was, taking a great deal of time due to the short length of his stride.

  That was when he saw what looked like an old Western ghost town, with the streets paved with sand and dust, the sidewalks made of creaky wooden boards, and the quaint wooden buildings hardly casting a shadow in the bright sunlight.  The town was entirely deserted, and the wizard thought he could see a slight streak of white rush from place to place.

  Wizardmon thought he could see a trough full of fresh water nearby, and his feet were burning and aching as if they were on fire.  He was parched and ached so much for a drink of water.  The appearance of the white figure grew more frequent, and the wizard thought he could even see a pair of cerulean blue eyes peer at him and the wiggle of a white-and-purple tail.  He reached out for water and took the last few steps before he grew delirious and couldn't take it anymore.  Losing his consciousness, Wizardmon collapsed, making clouds of dust float up around him.

  The wizard would have been left for dead if the small miracle in cat form hadn't shown up.  A white ear twitched from around the corner of an old saloon.  The white face of Gatomon appeared next.  Then she gasped a high-pitched gasp and scampered out to Wizardmon.  Thinking quickly, she took a scarf and scooped up some clear water.  The cat had perched Wizardmon's head up on a stump and made him wake up.

  Despite him being groggy after waking up, the water Gatomon had looked most appealing to him at the moment.  Worriedly, the cat lifted it up to the wizard's mouth and held it there.  Wizardmon pulled down his scarf and took a deep drink of the water.  It was so cool and refreshing as every drop of it flowed down his throat and reviving him by every second.

  "Thank you for saving me," were the first words he had spoken for a long time.  He was deeply grateful about the way this stranger had saved his life.  "I will do the same for you someday."  He puled the scarf back over his face.

  Gatomon said nothing, for she knew what the wizard had been through.  She worked for Myotismon, who had bestowed upon her the same treatment he had given Wizardmon.

  "What is your name?" asked Wizardmon.

  "Gatomon," the cat replied dryly.  Her tail twitched, and the sunlight reflected off her golden tail ring.

  "Gatomon," repeated Wizardmon, closing his eyes and resting.  "I'm Wizardmon."

  Gatomon's heart melted for her fellow henchmon, so she motioned for him to stand up.  "You look as if you could use a rest," she said.  "I know just the place here."

  Wizardmon weakly stood up as Gatomon ran ahead to one of the wooden structures.  It appeared to have been a dilapidated 1800's hotel.  The door creaked as it was opened to reveal a musty common room with a creaky and sagging wooden staircase.  As the sun began to set, Wizardmon and Gatomon climbed up the stairs to a long hallway.  The closest doorway revealed a room with a small bed with scratchy white sheets and a white feather pillow.  The wizard fell onto the bed and laid his head on the pillow and his staff on the ground.

  The cat admired this sight, seeing that she had helped another in need.  _I thought I was hopeless and evil now that I work for Myotismon, _she thought.  _And look… this wizard says I saved his life.  I thought that ever since the one I had been searching for my life had disappeared, possibly forever, I didn't have a grain of righteousness within me.  A good deed has proven me wrong.  Was I cut out for a life in darkness?_

  As Wizardmon drifted off into a deep, dark sleep, Gatomon ran down the set of stairs, which creaked even under her light weight.  She glanced at her tail ring in anxiety.  If the vampire had seen the favor she did for the helpless wizard, he would surely punish her.  The punishment was extremely harsh although it wasn't as harsh as it was then.

  "Gatomon…" came a soft voice as a wind blew around her and the light started getting extremely dim.  Something was coming.

  "it can't be!" breathed Gatomon.

  "My pet…"  A cloud of black bats fluttered around Gatomon and screeched as they flew around the room and hung from the rafters of the ceiling.  Myotismon appeared in front of Gatomon, towering over the small digimon at his seven feet in height, with his blue eyes flashing with impatience.  "Have you found any unsuspecting digimon for my new henchmen?"

  "Myotismon… baka…" muttered the cat.  "Nothing, master," she libeled, trying to conceal the fact that she didn't want to think her master to think she was disloyal to him.

  Suddenly, she felt herself being lifted into the air as if by magic and floated up to near the vampire, about a few inches away from his face.  He grabbed her by the neck and started growling at her, "Well find them or you will be fed to Darktyrannomon."  He dropped her on the floor, and she started to cry and rub herself.  Then she started to back away in fear.  "You have seven hours to find a henchmen for my elite team.  And don't let me down, Gatomon."

  The bats that were hanging upside-down from the rafters glared at Gatomon with glowing red eyes.  About five of them spread their wings and squeaked.

  "I won't let you down, Lord Myotismon," said Gatomon, bowing after she had stood up.

  The vampire just cast a frown at his henchman and looked straight ahead.  "Yes, Gatomon, find him or else."

  Suddenly all the bats flew out at their master and formed a cloud around him, flying closer and closer until he had disappeared.  Then the cloud flew right out the door, which was opened by a gust of wind.  As the bats flew into the distance, the cat trudged up the stairs.  Why hadn't she realized it before?  The wizard was the perfect target and the perfect henchman.

  She didn't see any nets or traps anywhere, but she opened an old cupboard and discovered an empty flour sack inside it, exactly the right size for a Wizardmon to fit inside.  Her eyes glinting with malice, Gatomon swiped the sack and hurried up the stairs with it in one of her paws.  Inside the room, the wizard was sleeping peacefully on the soft bed.  He had had a long day and needed his rest.

  The cat knew it was her chance as she opened the bag so it was wide enough to ensnare the unsuspecting victim.  She trembled as she pulled the bag over his feet, then she abruptly ceased the capture and heaved a heavy sigh.

  _Why can't I go through with this?  I need to capture Wizardmon if I want to please the master, but I can't.  Am I cut out to be a virus?_

  "I can't do this!" she exclaimed, breaking the silence.  She dropped the sack and started to take it off before six black bats flew in through the open window and pulled the top of the sack up to his neck.  "You!" she exclaimed, swatting.  One of the bats bit her paw, and as she got pricked by the sharp little teeth, red blood dripped out of the wound.  Then she jumped right onto his head and swiped one of her claws gently across his face.  "WIZARDMON!  WAKE UP!" she screamed.

  The wizard opened his eyes and saw Gatomon and asked, "Why did you awaken me?"

  "Wizardmon…" she said, "this place isn't safe!  Quick, I'll try to get you out of this sack!"

  Wizardmon blinked and gasped as he saw his entire body concealed in a flour sack and six bats pulling the drawstring around his neck.  "Gatomon!" he accused.  "What have you done?"

  "It wasn't me, Wizardmon!" the cat digimon exclaimed, unaware that the light had grown extremely dim and more bats were flying into the room and perching upside-down on the rafters of the ceiling.  "I'll get you out of these chains!"  She drew her paw back, preparing to sever the bag.  "LIGHTNING—"

  Suddenly, she was grabbed by the neck by two pinching claw-like hands and found herself looking into the eyes of Myotismon.

  "I see you have found me a henchmon," he declared as the bag was pulled over Wizardmon's head and concealing him from view.  It was fortunate that Myotismon hadn't seen the wizard.  Gatomon winced as he pinched her skin.  "I must give you credit, Gatomon."  Gatomon was dropped onto the bed as Demidevimon flew up to the bed and perched onto a post.

  "Demidevimon…" groaned the cat.  "If I had the chance I'd kill you."

  "You're a little fiesty today, Gatomon dear," said the vampire.  "I have my henchmon, but if you don't get any more digimon I won't be so easy on me."

  Gatomon felt herself being dropped onto the ground.  Wizardmon heard the entire thing as he squirmed in the bag.  "She works for Myotismon?!" the wizard exclaimed as he struggled to escape.  The air was growing hotter than the desert and a lot more uncomfortable as he felt himself being dragged along the floor and up into the cargo hold of the stagecoach.

  Necromamon, the dark sorcerer, had vividly remembered every detail of the capture.  He saw two identical thrones next to each other at the end of a long crimson carpet lined with a gold border.  Myotismon was sitting in the larger one, and Lady Myotismon in the other.  Demidevimon had appeared in the midst of the sorcerer's reminiscing and was fluttering his wings and flying up to the two thrones.

  "Well well well," the imp said, perching on top of the vampire's throne and looking down at the vampire's lady counterpart.  "Look at what the cat dragged in!  You look better that way, you know."

  "Shut up, Demidevimon," said Lady Myotismon, glaring at Demidevimon with her blue eyes.  Then she shot the sorcerer a sympathetic look that plainly said _I'll get you out of here._

  "Well congrats on you finally changing and forgetting about your eighth digi-destined," continued the imp.  He flapped his wings and flew onto a suit of armor.  That was when he glanced at Necromamon and snorted at him.  "I guess they haven't taken out the palace trash yet."

  The sorcerer was not good at thinking up combacks, but he knew the best one to use.  "I see that because you aren't gone, Demidevimon," he retorted.

  "This scene I ought to see," remarked Demidevimon, referring to the one between Myotismon and his female counterpart.

  Myotismon gathered some of Lady Myotismon's hair and smelled it.  He relished the scent, which was the fragrant aroma of black roses.  Then he drew close to her and eyed her neck as if he were about to bite it.

  "STAY AWAY FROM HER!" Necromamon shouted, rattling the bars of his cage.

  The vampire turned his head around to see the sorcerer was still in the room.  Then he glared at him.  "CRIMSON LIGHTNING!" he shouted, sending a bolt right at the cage and shocking Necromamon through the metal.  The sorcerer fell limp onto the metal floor of the cage.  Being his seductive self, Myotismon drew even closer to his female counterpart.  "You are so beautiful," he said in a silky voice, running his hand through her hair.  The vampire lady tried her best not to scream.  "I hope you know what life for the Lady of the Undead is like… for that is what you are…"

  It took all of the sorcerer's willpower not to yell out again.  If only he had his staff, if _only_ he had his staff!

  "And that means feeding on the blood of unsuspecting victims," Myotismon continued.  "Your first meal is over there, in that cage.  Necromamon has the sweetest blood of all the dark digimon here."  He pointed a finger at the cage.  The vampire lady rose from her throne and strode over to the cage.

  "Please don't kill me," whispered the sorcerer.  "Please don't kill me."

  "I would never kill you," whispered Lady Myotismon.  "I'm Gatomon."  She used a small ball of violet-colored lightning to break the bars of the cage.  "Just play along, it will guarantee your freedom.  For I would rather starve to death than see others suffer."

  That brought back another memory from the sorcerer's past, back from when he was Wizardmon.  He was back in the castle, as he remembered.  The light was extremely dim and dark, and a musty scent was floating in through the sack.  That was when he stopped struggling to escape for he had run out of his much-needed energy.  He felt the sack being opened and he tumbled onto the floor.  As he looked up, he saw himself lying on the floor, feeling the scratchy crimson carpet underneath himself.  He saw a dark throne not too far away from himself.

  "My, my, look at what the cat dragged in," said Myotismon, glaring at the wizard with his ice blue eyes.  "GATOMON!" he shouted, his voice echoing through the empty halls.

  The cat charged into the room so quickly she was nearly a white flash.  "Yes, Lord Myotismon?" she said, bowing.

  "Don't 'yes Lord Myotismon' me," growled the vampire, rising from his throne, extremely mad.  "This is Wizardmon!"

  "I know it's Wizardmon," said the cat digimon.  "If you are unhappy with him, I'll be glad to get you a different digimon—"

  "Don't push your luck, Gatomon," said Myotismon, sitting back in his throne, his hand glowing.  "You have angered me.  Wizardmon… is a TRAITOR!  And by bringing him back to me you must be a traitor as well!  CRIMSON LIGHTNING!"  He whipped Gatomon across the back with the lightning, leaving a pink burn mark on her fur every time the lightning hit.

  "Please… Lord Myotismon… I'm sorry… forgive me, Lord Myotismon!  Master Myotismon!  I will find another servant—"  Suddenly a huge bolt of lightning flew right at her side and actually made her bleed.  As dark red blood flowed from her wound, she screamed out.  "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!"  Her scream was so loud Wizardmon went deaf for three seconds after the scream finished.  "I will… I… will find another servant…"

  "Bakemon, lock up this traitor!" commanded the vampire as the cat flew out of the room, crying her eyes out.  Two ghost digimon grabbed the innocent wizard by the arms and threw him into a nearby cage.  Then they locked the door extremely tight so he couldn't escape.

  That was when Wizardmon realized he didn't have his staff with him.  "I need my STAFF!" he shouted, reaching between the bars of the cage and straining to see if the staff was anywhere.

  "I see you are nothing without your staff," said Myotismon, merely minutes later as he strode up to the cage.  One of his hands was glowing, and he started to produce a bolt of his crimson lightning.  Wizardmon braced himself for a whipping.  "You are a TRAITOR!  No one betrays me and gets out alive!"  The bolt lashed out between the bars and hit Wizardmon across his back, re-opening his wounds and making them so sore he couldn't move without feeling more agonizing pain.  "You are a TRAITOR!"  With every word he whipped even harder.  Wizardmon refused to say anything even though he didn't deserve an ounce of punishment.  "I gave you the chance to be powerful and you turned your back on me and attacked me!  Wizardmon, your life will come to an end!"  He whipped three more times even harder than ever.  The final whip was so hard it actually made him cry out so loudly Gatomon was able to hear it.

  "Wizardmon…" she gasped, forgetting her own pain and remembering Wizardmon had it harder than she ever had.  His existence might have been more important than she thought, and her saving him might have been for a better reason.

  Hours later, when she was sure Myotismon was asleep, she took the cloths from her prison (which she slept on) and her bowl of water and used her attack to open the door.  Then she carried it to Wizardmon's cage and dipped the first cloth into the bowl of water.  Then she slipped in and stripped the wizard down to his skin and saw many wounds from past whippings on his back.  She spread the cloth onto his back and knew where the healing root rarely used in any potions was.

  The wizard opened his eyes and saw Gatomon tending to his wounds.  "Gatomon… don't you work for Myotismon?" he asked.

  "I do but I'll be disloyal to help you.  I know what you've been through," replied the cat.  She dashed between the bars and came back a few minutes later with a healing root.  She poured it onto the cloth and on the whipped areas.  The cloth was rubbed over all his wounds, and then she wrapped a dry cloth around him.  "Keep this around your wounds overnight and you will be healed," she assured him.

  Wizardmon nodded, trusting Gatomon this time.  And his wounds did heal the next day.  The vampire was in a foul mood that next day, so he threatened to starve Wizardmon by not giving him any food or water for three days.

  "No," he said, feeling parched from the day before.

  Gatomon considered this, but since she was a higher servant than most of Myotismon's other servants, she would survive on only half of her food and she could steal water from other servants, only a bit at a time.  What she did for the day was keep Wizardmon fed by giving him nearly all her food.  She was ravenous for the entire day after being deprived of most of her food to keep her friend alive.  She was parched and would have even drunk a bitter wine or salt water, or even poison just to stay alive.

  "Thank you so much, Gatomon," said the wizard, gulping down most of the water on the third day.  "I am very grateful."  He returned the bowl and the cat, seeing that there was still enough water in there, drank it down.  She was still aching for any liquid.  Luckily, the next day Wizardmon's starvation penalty was over and she was never so grateful for water.  Gatomon had nearly starved to save Wizardmon's life.

  But there still was the matter of the staff.  The cat had obtained the staff and secretly gave it to Wizardmon, who escaped, but was forced to work for the vampire, but alongside the cat digimon.  He had to repay her for the ways she had saved his life.

  Lady Myotismon unlocked the bars and forced Necromamon to climb out.  She held her hands gently around him and pretended to dispise the sorcerer.  Necromamon played along, afraid that something really would happen to him.  The vampire lady was beginning to eye his neck in the hungry way Myotismon looked at him sometimes.  She resisted the temptation even though she had the thirst for blood that her male counterpart had.

  "Please don't bite me," gasped the sorcerer.

  "I won't…" she whispered.  Then she appeared puzzled even though she naturally knew what to do to draw blood.  "I don't know how to do this," she lied.  "I can't go through with something I don't know how to do."

  Necromamon tried not to weakly smile at his friend, who was truly Gatomon in disguise.  Perhaps there was hope for him.

  Then there was Incantemon.  His brother came bursting in through the doors with Erika and Kari by his side.  "Leave Necromamon and Gatomon alone, Myotismon!" he exclaimed, pointing his staff right at him.

  "I'm afraid I already got to Gatomon," said the vampire, exposing his fangs in a sinister grin.

  _The dream!_ Kari remembered.  _Necromamon truly is evil, letting that happen to Gatomon like that!_

  Reading the digi-destined's thoughts, the good sorcerer started to grow furious at the three virus digimon.  "NECROMAMON!  HOW DARE I CALL YOU 'BROTHER'!  How could you do this to Gatomon after all she's done for you!  She's now the female counterpart of our greatest enemy yet, and you probably changed her!  Kari's dream did come true for you… you are truly evil.  You are not my brother at all!"

  "Incantemon… it's not like that!" shouted the dark sorcerer.  "Please understand!"

  "I do believe that you are Wizardmon," said Erika, "but I do believe that the potion has gotten to you.  Maybe you are, deep within, but I don't know if we have hope."

  _Not even my own brother believes me!_ thought Necromamon, beginning to cry.  He saw Myotismon devouring every last accusation and the ways it was torturing the dark sorcerer's soul.  Suddenly he got an inspiration.  It was an ancient poem that he, the light sorcerer, and the cat digimon had learned and made the code of their alliance.  Not even Erika or Kari knew about it.  _Should I recite it?  I must if Incantemon doesn't learn._

  Suddenly, his strong and shaky voice broke the silence.  

  _"When all of Digiworld has fallen,_

  When the data code is broken…" 

  Lady Myotismon knew exactly what Necromamon was trying to do. 

_  "When the goodness has disappeared,_

  What will stand strong is our word spoken…" 

  The dark sorcerer decided to speak as he saw his brother's heart starting to melt and the expression on his face beginning to soften.

  _"The seas may have been drained dry_

  And the green grass has turned to dust…" 

  And the vampire lady joined in with her friend as Incantemon realized how wrong he was.

  _"And though the sun may never shine,_

_  Three digimon stay strong, they must…"_

  Incantemon realized that they truly were good, and that if they were evil, they wouldn't remember this verse.  He joined in and the two voices became a chorus of three.__

_  "The Alliance of Three, digimon of light_

_  To fight evil though they rule the Digi Land_

_  Though the world is no more and hope may be lost_

_  They will restore it to how they began._

_  For Light has not turned to Darkness_

_  And Hope will never be Dispair,_

_  The Virtues of the Alliance will prevail_

_  And will always remain with them there._

_  And with them the Digiworld is blessed_

_ With the Powers of Light."_

  "You truly are Wizardmon and Gatomon," apologized the sorcerer of light.  "We must turn around and fight before anything goes wrong."

  Suddenly, Bakemon flew around from all corners and chained up the two sorcerers, who faced a furious Myotismon glaring at his lady counterpart.  Kari was still extremely doubtful of this and was chained up as well.  What if she had learned that verse and was trying to throw Incantemon and Necromamon off?

  "Lock them all up!" commanded Myotismon.  "Lady Myotismon, or should I say, Gatomon… I have special plans for you."

To be continued…


	8. Lord and Lady

A/N: I'm back from Michigan and FINALLY glad to have fanfiction access.  Now for responses to ALL ur reviews, in the order I got em (thanks to DuchessRaven for her review!!!):

**_To Avalon:_** I ended it there because… because… well I don't really know why b/c I think so I can continue where it left off.

**_To Jes: _**;-D

**_To Blackout12: _**I only get delirious on sugar for my insane fics like the humor ones.  Oh my STORY… Yah they are special plans.  And I mean SPECIAL.

**_To Devidramon: _**Really?  Cool names.  My favorite was MarshMaloMyotismon, but I didn't really comprehend it until three days later… stupid me…  I was at my cousins' house this weekend and one of them called Myotismon, "Mysto-moon" and I know someone who liked to call him "Mitosis-mon."  And even I used to make fun of his name and call him "Your-otismon."  I did that two years ago.

**_To Sabrina Black: _**I managed to make ur heart break, huh?  Everyone says that about cliffys, or it seems that way.  *shrug*  Well this could be "soon."

**_To Jules Verne (Shadow Rider): _**That was the most pointless review I ever got!  Hey I'm just kidding.

**_To Kyer: _**Ayeth, she is…  I'll try to get her out of trouble though.

**_To blackmage718: _**At least cliffhangers keep people hooked…  Glad you want me to keep going!

**_To CheeseWizardmon: _**Yah, Mayotismon the fruit is trying to hit on Gatomon's new form… she's his lady counterpart, she's good, she's Gatomon…

**_To DuchessRaven:_** Thanks!!!  Well here's the new chapter!

  OK, everyone, here's the next chapter!  This will be an… um… interesting one.  Beware of some stuff.  This isn't really romance, but it could pass for something along the lines of it.  This makes me sorta wonder if a rating change is needed.  I'm really happy because I'm finally going to get the clothes _I_ want, this Friday!!!!!!!!!  Oh boy I'm having a bad day today… don't mind if this chapter is darker than the others.  I've had a tough week L  Besides that, my dad didn't activate Windows XP when he was supposed to so I had to REALLY postpone this chapter… now I'm back!  Enjoy!

Chapter 8: Lord and Lady

  "Why does Myotismon want Gatomon so badly?" wondered Necromamon when he and his brother Incantemon had been cuffed to a prison wall by their hands and feet, with the humans in a different prison.  The cell was small, cold, windowless, and musty, with the stone floor covered with at least an inch of dust.  The metal bars were quite small and were digging into their wrists and legs every time they moved even the smallest bit.  They were suspended by their hands and feet about a foot off the ground, with their staffs mounted on the walls, out of their reach.

  The good sorcerer groaned, "I wish I could reach my staff."  Even if he knew he was so weak already from staying at his ultimate stage too long and from fighting, and struggling to break free of other chains, he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to use psychic energy to unlock the metal cuffs, and they shook weakly, then ceased the shaking.  "The bars are too strong to open!"

  "Brother," the dark sorcerer comforted his brother, "you are weak.  I am the one who started all this trouble; I must be the one to unbind you from the chains."

  Incantemon sighed, and then hung his head and closed his eyes.  The stray strands of hair fluttered in his face as he stared at the ground.  "Please, do not waste your much-needed energy on me," he told his brother.  "I may be a vaccine, but I am useless against defeating Myotismon and his henchmon… free yourself, Wizardmon."

  Suddenly Necromamon felt a sense of warmth within him as he heard the words the light sorcerer had said.  _He called me "Wizardmon…"  not "Necromamon…"  He knew.  I must free them… I need the strength to save the digital world… I must give Incantemon my own power despite the fact he's too weak to break free… I don't want to be selfish…_

  "Incantemon?" he asked with tears glittering in his eyes, ready to sacrifice his own strength.

  The sorcerer weakly lifted his head, feeling as if he was ready to de-digivolve or even get reconfigured.  "Please… no speaking… I feel weary… I have used up so much of my energy for healing… and my digivolving without a crest around makes it even worse…  I have never been in my ultimate form this long, and I wish to be left alone…"

  "I want to give you my strength," declared the dark sorcerer.  "You need it more than I do, and I am a worthless virus.  I am WORTHLESS!"  It echoed throughout the cell as tears streamed down his face and he hung his head in despair.  He was famished, parched, and extremely vulnerable, and his energy was quite needed, but he was willing to give it up.

  "Don't… think… that… way…"

  "Let me give you my energy before—"

  Suddenly the CLANG of metal against metal caused the door to open to reveal none other than Myotismon standing in their midst, gripping a bolt of Crimson Lightning and whipping it against the wall for practice.  The wall started breaking off in chunks.

  "Before you die," Myotismon continued, pointing the bolt of Crimson Lightning right in the sorcerers' faces.  Only Necromamon was able to react, for he still had the energy.  "Let me see… Necromamon… shall I whip you first?"  He stepped into the cell and paced around, deep in thought.  Then he stepped right up to Incantemon, who was trying to regenerate himself.

  "You're not getting away with anything you do to Gatomon," the dark sorcerer threatened, positive he was going to receive a severe whipping.  "If you do so much as lay a finger on her you will have to answer to me."

  The vampire turned away from the extremely weak Incantemon and stepped over to Necromamon.  What he did was try to vex the dark sorcerer by stepping up to his face.  "You are a very brave digimon to try to threaten me like that," he declared, reaching out and withdrawing the dark sword from its holder.  Then he stroked the sword gently.  "Ah, I love the feel of a sword in my hands," continued Myotismon, removing his gloves and running his hands up and down the blade of the sword.

  "If you slaughter Gatomon you are going to be incredibly sorry for your actions," threatened Necromamon.  "Especially if you use my sword to do so!"  He struggled to break free, but was whipped across the side by the lightning, being shocked in the process.  He felt his side aching and tried his best to keep his mind off the pain.

  "Yes, but what if I slaughter…" said the vampire, taking the sorcerer's sword and gently drawing it back.  Then he quickly pointed the tip of the blade right at the good sorcerer's face.  "Incantemon?"  The blade was less than a millimeter away from the tip of Incantemon's nose and one wrong move could have slit his face open.

  "INCANTEMON!" shouted the dark sorcerer.  "Don't move!"

  Myotismon glared an extremely cold glare that could send shivers down anyone's spine, and kept the sword pointed.  Suddenly, the vampire drew the sword around in circles, less than a millimeter away from Incantemon's delicate face.  Necromamon concentrated, trying to get the sword away out of Myotismon's hands and back into his own, but it didn't seem to work.

  Finally he got the sword to move slightly, but accidentally slitting a thin cut on the side of his brother's face.  Red blood ran down Incantemon's pale cheek as his brother became enraged.  Incantemon wasn't able to do anything about it, for he had fallen into a deep sleep.  As Myotismon ran one of his slender fingers down the cut and licked the blood off of it, Necromamon made the sword fly right onto the ground.

  "Get away from him," said Necromamon.  "That's it!  I now give Incantemon my energy!"  Suddenly a ball of precious yellow energy was extracted from the dark sorcerer's body and was absorbed into his brother's.  As he opened his eyes and the energy revived him, the color drained from the dark sorcerer's face and he lost almost all of his energy.

  "My, that was very noble of you, wasn't it," growled Myotismon, taking the sword off the ground and pointing it at Necromamon's face.

  "Leave my brother ALONE!" shouted Incantemon, suddenly getting a burst of energy large enough to concentrate hard enough to tear the cuffs apart as if they were merely twigs or green stems.  As he landed gracefully on the ground, the light sorcerer grabbed his staff and pointed it at the vampire, letting out a sunburst of yellow light and forcing him to hit the wall with great impact and land in the next cell, injured and unconscious.  Then he used smaller bursts to get Necromamon's staff off the wall.  Then he handed it to his brother, who felt some energy flowing into his fingertips and breaking off the wall little by little.  Finally, he was almost completely revived.  "Wizardmon, we don't have time," he told Necromamon.  "We need to leave.  I was able to temporarily knock out Myotismon for a short time.  Come on, let's find Gatomon quickly before he regains his strength."

  Since the door to the cell was wide open, the two sorcerer digimon fled the dungeon in search of their friends, first freeing Erika.  Kari was not in the cell with her.

  "They took Kari!" the teenage girl exclaimed.  "Bakemon took her into another room!"

  Myotismon had finally regained his consciousness, and he was incredibly furious at how Incantemon and Necromamon had fought together to blast him through the wall of a prison and succeeded.  He vowed revenge on the brothers as he finally arose from the heap of broken-off pieces of wall around him and weakly stood up and stormed through the prison to his throne room.

  And what a sight he was to see… His hair, usually neatly combed back, was messed up, covered with gray dust, and even tangled slightly.  His face was slightly smudged with grayish dust and part of it was covered with his own blood.  His cape was torn and dirty, his once-spotless suit was covered with dust and even had a cobweb on it.  His gloves were somewhere…  The silver ornaments on his boots were tarnished, and the boots were also covered with dust.

  "Damn Incantemon and Necromamon," he growled as he started wiping the blood off his face.  Finally he made it into the throne room, where his lady counterpart was chained to the throne and looking more frightened than she was when she was Gatomon.  "My lady, I am ready for you."

  "Lord Myotismon!" Lady Myotismon gasped at the sight.  "You… you… you look as if you have been through a harsh battle!  Where are your gloves?"

  The vampire's lips curled into an evil grin as he walked uprightly towards his counterpart and came within an inch of her.  Then he slightly leaned over her and breathed in the scent of her sweet-smelling hair.  "I must prepare myself for you… Lady Myotismon," he said seductively as he stood over her.  His voice was slightly hypnotic as Phantomon floated into the room.  Myotismon cradled his lady's chin in his hand as her eyes began to close softly.  "You look tired, my dear…"  Phantomon sent out powerful waves from his eye pendant into Lady Myotismon's, and she started to fall half-asleep, still hearing her lord's speaking.  "You must sleep, sleep the deepest sleep of your life… and you will be under my control…"

  All of a sudden, the vampire lady changed physically, in front of her male counterpart's eyes.  Her eyes clouded over and became an opaque grayish-yellow color; the cerulean blue of Gatomon's eyes were no longer visible.  Her mouth was slightly open and she was sitting still and no longer fought the urge to escape.  Myotismon backed away from the scene and out of the room as Phantomon's distant yet strong and wavery voice echoed throughout her mind.

  "You are in Lord Myotismon's power…" the phantom disclosed as the hypnotism took place.

  Suddenly, Lady Myotismon was not able to remember a thing except that she was loyal to her male counterpart and would remain loyal to him forever.

  Meanwhile, the two sorcerers and Erika were trying to find their way, and they finally made it to the throne room later.  When they did, they were too late, for the chains binding the vampire lady to the throne were broken and the power from the hypnotism was in its full effect.  The only slight light was on the vampire lady's throne.  Nothing else was seen.

  "Gatomon!" the dark sorcerer exclaimed.

  Lady Myotismon stared evilly at Necromamon and Incantemon, thinking of nothing except to destroy them.

  "It's us, Gatomon!  We're here to rescue you!" exclaimed Erika.  "We'll get you to de-digivolve and find Kari—"

  "CRIMSON LASH!" she exclaimed, raising a hand in the air and forming a whip of a weaker version of Myotismon's Crimson Lightning.  She whipped it out with a huge crack and it cracked again as it hit Erika in the side, making her fall over and start to burn.

  "Gatomon!"  Necromamon was appalled at the attack.

  "I am not Gatomon," said Lady Myotismon.  "I lament my life as a vaccine!"  She prepared to attack again.  "RAGING NIGHTMARE!"  The attack much like the Nightmare Claw came out and blew dark energy fire at the three, just missing them.

  Incantemon realized something.  "She's under his control!" he exclaimed, seeing her hazy yellow eyes.

  "They know, my lord," said Lady Myotismon.  The light grew slightly lighter, but still the same extremely dim light in the castle.  This time a fire was glowing near the throne, shining a soft yellow glow on a newly revived Myotismon, sitting on his tall throne and holding a glass of red wine.

  "Myotismon…" the dark sorcerer growled.  "What have you done with her?!"

  "It was merely a process called hypnotism, Necromamon," replied the vampire.  "I believe you know all about it."  Phantomon flew out and stared at the dark sorcerer, who dared not make eye contact.  "As you see, Phantomon has special hypnotic powers that can alter a digimon's mind.  I believe that my lady was still Gatomon within.  Because the potion never worked, I had to resort to hypnotism."  He took a sip of the wine, waiting for the reaction from Necromamon.

  "Heartless fiend," growled Necromamon.

  "Perhaps I must hypnotize you next," said Myotismon.  "Phantomon, begin the spell!" he commanded.

  Closing his eyes to avoid any waves of hypnotism and making eye contact with the phantom, the dark sorcerer searched his mind for a way to bring Gatomon back to real life instead of thinking she had to follow the vampire for the rest of her life.  _I know there's a way… let there be a way…_  All of a sudden his ears began ringing with the sound of a thousand wails of agony as the entrancing spell got to him.  All he was able to do was open his eyes.  His mind screamed for him not to yet his body responded to every wave of hypnotism as his eyes opened wide and began to cloud over.  There was nothing he could do, and all that could help him now was his own powers.

  "You will remain loyal to Lord Myotismon… follow him… follow him…"  The voice of the phantom echoed through his mind before Necromamon realized he was also a sorcerer and able to produce a countercurse.

  "NEVER!" he shouted, pointing his staff right at Phantomon.  "DARK SPELL!"  The blast of dark energy shot right out at the phantom ghost, causing him to fly back and hit the wall behind him.  As he came to his senses, the dark sorcerer saw he had just saved himself.

  Myotismon was furious at this, and shattered the wine glass in his hand.  Then he rose from the throne and formed a bolt of Crimson Lightning in his hand.  "I tried to use the potion, I tried to use hypnotism.  It seems to me the only way to make you loyal is to attack.  CRIMSON LIGHTNING!"

  "DARK SPELL!"

  "INCANTATION: FIRE!"

  The two attacks flew right at the vampire, who warded the fire off with his lightning whip but was not able to stop the Dark Spell in time.

  "CRIMSON LASH!"  Suddenly Lady Myotismon produced her attack, which sliced right through the Dark Spell.

  Necromamon gasped, seeing that he was going to have to fight to have his friend back.  All of a sudden, Myotismon got the inspiration to end all inspirations.  He would marry Lady Myotismon, and together they would rule over the digital world without Necromamon getting in the way.

  Dark digimon had gathered from all over Digiworld for the occasion.  Necromamon and Incantemon had been locked up in a very nearby prison (which was adjacent to the ballroom, where the wedding was held) for an execution following the ceremony.

  "You can't let him get away with this!"  The light sorcerer's voice echoed through the cell as the Bakemon locked them inside without their staffs.

  "I am much more powerful than you ever will be," said Myotismon from near them.  Instead of his blue suit and normal black-and-red cape, he was wearing a fancier black suit that seemed to look like it was made of leather and was tighter on him than the usual blue suit, and a longer black-and-gold cape lined with red, with the top three feet above the top of his head and the bottom trailing on the floor..  Even his gloves and boots had changed into black leather ones with golden bat ornaments on them.  The only things that hadn't changed were his mask and his hair.  "Your Gatomon is mine."

  "I will bring her back no matter what," said Necromamon.

  The vampire started to laugh at this, then he turned around and walked away.

  "We're nothing without our staffs," said Incantemon.  "I must try to remember the incantation, and fast."  He closed his eyes and put his fingers against his temple, trying his best to get a recollection of the right incantation.  Then he started muttering something to himself.  Light seemed to reflect off his pale grayish face and his hair began to blow upwards as if it was in a breeze.  Suddenly the light died down and his hair fell back into its place.

  "What's wrong?" the dark sorcerer quietly asked his brother.

  "I couldn't remember it… and look what's about to happen!"

  Suddenly huge bursts of dark music rang throughout the old castle ballroom.  It was a combination of a pipe organ with deep brass and even small beats of drums sounded out.

  "It's so entrancing, yet it reeks with darkness," breathed Necromamon, listening to the bursts of music.  "Just like Myotismon…  That music fits him perfectly and soon, Lady Myotismon."

  "She is only a pawn in his master plan, remember?  She has been hypnotized, and there is only one way to reverse the hypnosis."

  Suddenly they saw heads turn towards the doorway at the end of the ballroom, covered by delicate black see-through curtains.  A long crimson carpet was rolled out from the end and the curtains fluttered apart as the crowd of evil digimon rose from their seats.  As the curtains parted, Lady Myotismon seemed to just float through, her long black dress's fifteen-foot train trailing behind her.  Her dress was black silk, sleeveless, and very revealing, with much of it clinging to her curves and the skirt flowing onto the floor below.  She was also wearing long black-and-red gloves and a long black veil.  She stepped forward, not hesitating one bit.

  "It's too late, Necromamon!  I must try NOW!"

  "Please don't harm yourself trying to do so!"

  Meanwhile, at the end of the aisle, the vampire lord was standing tall and shooting glares at the sorcerers and admiring his lady.  Also, Angemon had been digi-napped and was chained to the ground, Phantomon flying near him with his scythe to show that if he messed up or refused to perform the ceremony he would be executed.

  Incantemon closed his eyes and put two of his fingers against his head, reciting what he remembered of the incantation.  With every word of the incantation he spoke, an aura of light surrounded him and his hair started to blow into the air as if there were a gentle breeze blowing.  "_Anthisei metarii ei dir myostike, anthisei entérr téan rốn eir dhei… ta dirrǔne… ta dirrǔne… _I don't remember the rest!"  His hair relaxed and 

  "NO!" shouted the dark sorcerer.  "I've never learned that incantation!"

  The angel's strong voice rang out through the hall.  "… to unite this mon and womon in holy matrimony…"  Only everyone knew there was a hint of fear in his voice which made it slightly shaky.

  _If only I hadn't tried to digivolve… if only… then Gatomon would be herself and we wouldn't be here… I know my brother is weak for he hasn't been able to de-digivolve and the crest hasn't been found…_  The dark sorcerer started to gently weep to himself as the voice continued its nervous droning on.  Suddenly it came to the crucial point of the ceremony, the point where it all mattered.

  Angemon took a breath, then began to speak.  "Do you, Lord Myotismon, take this lady digimon, to be…"

  All of a sudden, the dark sorcerer's mind filled with thoughts all of a sudden.  Forgotten incantations and memories floated past himself.  And he found himself thinking the poem.

_"When the Digiworld has fallen,_

_When the data code is broken…"_

_Oh why am I thinking this?_

_"When the goodness has disappeared,_

_What will stand strong is our word spoken._

_The seas may have been drained dry…"_

_THAT'S IT!_

  "Incantemon, we might not need an incantation after all," said the dark sorcerer.  "This might or might not work."  He spoke up and decided to recite the poem.

  "… till death do you part?"

  "I do," said Myotismon.  It was almost as if he cared.  He did care about his female counterpart, but only for power and self-satisfaction.

  "When the Digiworld has fallen,

  When the data code is broken,

  When the goodness has disappeared,

  What will stand strong is our word spoken.

  The seas may have been drained dry,

  And the green grass has turned to dust…"

  "Do you, Lady Myotismon, take this digimon, to be your husband…"

  "And though the sun may never shine,

  Three digimon stay strong, they must…"

  "To have and to hold…"

  "The Alliance of Three, digimon of light,

  To fight evil though they rule the Digi Land,

  Though the world is no more and hope may be lost

  They will restore it to how it began…"

  "For richer or for poorer, through sickness and in health…"

  "For Light has not turned to Darkness

  And Hope will never be Despair,

  The Virtues of the Alliance will prevail

  And will always remain with them there.

  And with them the Digiworld is blessed…"

  "Till death do you part?"

  "WITH THE POWERS OF LIGHT!"

  It came down to that.  Would the sacred poem of the three friends work, or will Lady Myotismon be forever loyal?

To be continued…__


	9. Escape From Digi-hell

A/N: Fine.  I'm SO sorry about all the cliffhangers and such… so please forgive me!  I have a thing for cliffhangers, I just like writing them.  I'll try not to put any more cliffhangers in here, OK.  I just have a thing for cliffhangers like I have a thing for blue clothes.  I don't know why I have em or put em in, but I do know I like them.  (Serious.  Over half of my wardrobe is blue clothes.  If I wear a pair of blue jeans w/ a blue shirt and put my black duster over them, I'm dressed sorta like Myotismon :P)  And now for my responses to all ur reviews, in the order I got them:

**_To Avalon:_** Well here's the part that comes after the suspense!  This might have suspense.

**_To Shadow Rider:_** Good luck with ur diet!  J/K.  That was SO pointless.  J/K.

**_To Kyer:_** An evil Wizardmon?  Cool!  Aw, too bad he dies!  Glad you want the series to keep going!

**_To Sabrina Black:_** Sorry about the delay… I've been too busy w/ schoolwork and such…

**_To blackmage718: _**I promise there will be no cliffies in this chapter.  I swear there will be no cliffies.  HEY PHANTOMON!  GET IN HERE AND HYPNOTIZE ME!  (Phanto: You will not write cliffhangers… You will not write cliffhangers…)  I will not write cliffhangers.

**_To CheeseWizardmon:_** I hope this is "soon" enough for you… I have been SO busy lately…

**_To DuchessRaven:_** Sorry about how it loads, it loads fine on my computer…  Ooh, I wonder what you'll threaten to put Myo in this time!  And thanks for mentioning FV in that fic of urs! ^_^

**_To everyone: _**I promise there will be no cliffhanger at the end of this chapter, but it's not the last chapter, OK?  This is a bit short but I'll make it up to you in the next chapter.  Enjoy!

Chapter 9: Escape From Digi Hell

  Lady Myotismon realized she still remembered Necromamon just in time.  She blinked.  Once.  Twice.  Her eyes grew less cloudy, and more vibrant blue.  The cerulean eyes of Gatomon were shining on her face.  She looked into the dark sorcerer's eyes and thought, _Don't worry, Necromamon.  I'm here again._

  "Once again, Lady Myotismon," said the Angemon as Phantomon flew over to him, "do you take Lord Myotismon to be your husband?"

  "I have already made my choice," said the vampire lady.  She glared at her male counterpart with Gatomon's eyes, the very eyes he had despised for years.  "CRIMSON LASH!"  She had seen the dark sorcerer, her dear friend, and how he was locked up.  The boomerang-shaped bolt of red lightning slashed through the bars and chains, freeing Necromamon.

  "Good luck," whispered Incantemon.

  The dark sorcerer took a deep breath, and then he courageously leapt out of the cell and onto the ground.  He ran down the crimson carpet of the aisle and arrived just as the vampire discovered that his lady counterpart's hypnosis had ceased and she had returned back to normal

  "Those eyes!" shouted Myotismon.  "Gatomon's eyes!"  He started to growl at the dark sorcerer, knowing that he was the one who had provoked his female counterpart to recollect all the unwanted memories he didn't want her to remmeber.  That included the ones of her and Wizardmon.  All it took was one verse from a poem she learned to bond a friendship with Wizardmon and Auramon and she remembered everything.

  Suddenly, the once somber expression on Necromamon's face broke into a grin.  His face started to glow from his joy as he rushed over to Lady Myotismon and took her hands in his.  "Together we can fight Myotismon," he declared, looking into her eyes and seeing Gatomon's soul within them.  "I feel freedom in some way, and I wish to be completely free."

  They saw Myotismon and looked at him right in his ice blue eyes, preparing to attack.  There was a small crash as the beloved moon staff shattered parts of the wall and flew right into Necromamon's hands.  Warmth spread through his arm through his entire body as the staff's energy flowed into his fingertips.  The staff began to glow a dark gray color as surges of energy spewed out of it, hit the floor, and burned parts of it.

  Lady Myotismon nodded.  Necromamon had his eyes fixated on the vampire, knowing the staff and the attack would directly hit its target.

  "DARK SPELL!"  The sorcerer's shouts were heard throughout the ballroom.  The burst of dark magic shot out in five directions.  One hit Phantomon, forcing him and his scythe to hurtle back at the wall and phase through it; another hit the chains that bound Angemon to the wall by his foot, and freed him from his burden; the third hit the intricate glass-and-gold chandelier on the ceiling and forced it to crash down in the middle of the aisle, and the fourth and fifth hit Myotismon, singing his uniform and causing him to coil in pain.

  "BAKEMON!" he panted, reaching out for aid.

  The white ghost digimon came to his aid and soared through the ballroom, wailing "Master!" and causing a hush to fall over the entire room.  Not even the most courageous digimon dared to breathe, much less speak out against the shock of Necromamon showing up.

  "DARK SPELL!"  The dark sorcerer sent out bursts of dark magic out at the ghosts, hitting them at lightning speed and even causing them to dissolve in a flash.

  "CRIMSON LASH!"  The vampire lady had sent out her blade-shaped bolt of Crimson Lightning out at the ghosts as well, hitting each one of them and hitting the wall, pinning the Bakemon with it.  With a blast that blowed dust in all directions, the lightning blade flew right through the wall and the ghosts, reconfiguring each of them in a flash.

  Myotismon had grown enraged.  He clenched his teeth and his fist and drew his cape in.  Then he jumped into the air and spread his cape, summoning and releasing his bats in one of his attacks.  "GRISLY WING!" he shouted as the hundreds of bats were sent on Necromamon and Lady Myotismon.

  "BLACK THUNDER!" shouted Necromamon, forming a bolt of black lightning on his staff and shooting it out at the bats, which were forming a nearly solid barricade around him and Lady Myotismon.  The lightning zapped through the air and fried many of the bats that were screeching louder and gliding even closer.  "Lady Myo— er, Gatomon!  Attack!"

  The vampire lady shot the dark sorcerer a look of solace, knowing that it took Incantmeon to call Necromamon, "Wizardmon", to finally get him to gain hope.  And now the dark sorcerer to do the same thing for her.  She prepared to attack, using her most powerful flash.

  "VIOLET TEMPEST!" she screamed, conjuring purple thunderheads out of nowhere, which swirled around in the room and suddenly pouring rain onto everything except the dark sorcerer and herself.  Violet-colored lightning flashed out of the clouds, hitting the bats by the dozen and causing them to get electrocuted and fall to the ground, steaming from the violent shocks the thunderbolts gave off.  Then the vampire lady extended her hands, causing a violent gale to blow through the ballroom, blowing myriad small digimon away and causing them to hit the wall.  The gale grew into a squall with the power of a tornado, blowing even loose stones off the walls and through the stained-glass windows, shattering them and then making the dazzling sunlight to shine through.  Myotismon shielded himself with his cape and cursed under his breath.  The next thing that happened was a brilliant bolt of violet-colored lightning to flash through the air, bathing everything in a brilliant lavender light and deathblowed every last bat that Myotismon had sent on them.

  Necromamon had stood there for two seconds with his mouth wide open in astonishment.  Then he collected himself and looked into the eyes of a beaming Lady Myotismon and said, "You have the most impressive attacks."

  "You have excellent attacks for your level," replied the vampire lady.  "They have the eloquence of a mega's attack."

  Both their heads turned to see Myotismon, revived and still shielding himself with his cape.  Huge walls of bricks crashed onto the ground in front of the windows, making all the light to turn back into the castle's usual melancholy dimness.  No one could see a thing until a bolt of Crimson Lightning illuminated the place.

  "Unfortunately, so do Myotismon's!"

  "Why Necromamon," said the vampire, "fancy meeting you here.  I'm afraid you will need to leave my castle, as well as the digital world."  The bolt of Crimson Lightning extended to its maximum length possible and then became more dense in width.

  "No Lord Myotismon!  Don't kill him!"  Lady Myotismon stood right in front of the dark sorcerer and guarded him as if he were a precious jewel or made of gold.

  "Get out of my way, TRAITOR!" blared the vampire.  "CRIMSON LIGHTNING!"  He cracked the whip of lightning and then it flew through the air and hit Lady Myotismon's face, causing her to cry out and crumple helplessly to the floor.  "And let that be a lesson to you, Gatomon."

  Necromamon gasped.  Once again, Gatomon had risked her own life to save him.  

  The vampire lady took her hand away from the deep slit on her face, discovering it covered in her own blood.  She couldn't see out of her right eye and thought she would never be able to see out of it again.  She also knew there would be yet another scar on her body from the whippings she had received.  She could never escape the whip.  She had gotten whipped as Salamon, and whipped as Gatomon.  As Lady Myotismon, she had been whipped in her ultimate stage.

  "GATOMON!" shouted Necromamon, bending down and trying to lift Lady Myotismon off the ground.  She was able to stand up fine, so Necromamon took her free hand and started running out of the ballroom, down the aisle, out the doors.

  "GET THEM!" commanded Myotismon, motioning to the doors.  The doors started closing, and two suits of silver armor started to slowly drop their long axes and cross them into an X shape, the way the traditional guards guarded people and other important things.

  "MAGICAL SWORD!"  The dark sorcerer slashed one of the sharp axes apart and used it to hold the door open, but it started to shake under the pressure as the doors closed.  "Lady Myotismon!  We need to leave now!" he shouted.

  Lady Myotismon dashed over to the doors and escaped before Necromamon's sword flew into the halls and the doors closed and locked.  Lady Myotismon pulled on the iron door handles with all her might and pulled the handles off.  Then she started pounding on the doors as the dark sorcerer backed away slowly, stopping a few feet away from the doors, nearly dropping his staff.

  "Finally I get to do away with you," said Myotismon, closing in on Necromamon, who was pale and breathing quickly.  The dark sorcerer clutched his staff for he needed it so much.  He started gathering energy for his Nightmare Claw.

  "WIZARDMON!" Lady Myotismon screamed.

  Suddenly he got a burst of confidence.  "This is for Gatomon!" he exclaimed, with his staff starting to glow.  "And for my brother, and for our digi-destined, AND FOR ME!  BLACK THUNDER!"  It shot right out at the vampire, this time more powerful than ever, sending him against the wall and hitting it.  "LADY MYOTISMON, USE THE SWORD!" he yelled.

  Lady Myotismon located the sword and picked it up.  She swung it at the door, slashing the wood and even the metal apart, and severing a hole in it, giving Necromamon a way to escape.  He stepped through the door and took his sword, nodding to the vampire lady with closed eyes as if to silently thank her.

  "Quick, we only knocked Myotismon out for a few minutes, but he'll be back," said Necromamon.  "We must leave and now.  I think we can escape this castle, and we can find a place to hide out… somewhere…"

  "What about Kari?" wondered Lady Myotismon.  "And Incantemon?"

  "They'll find us," assured the dark sorcerer, walking away and picking up his pace.  "Now let's escape this hell before we're trapped forever."

  Lady Myotismon reluctantly joined Necromamon and traced his steps down the halls until they reached the doors that led to the outside.  A Bakemon was sleeping on the floor next to the door and was a very light yet frequent napper.

  Necromamon tiptoed towards the door, and then he opened it with a creak, paralyzed with fear that the Bakemon might catch both of them.  They cautiously snuck past the slumbering ghost, and out the door.  Unfortunately, something must have made a noise, for the ghost digimon opened one eye.

  "THE PRISONERS ARE ESCAPING, MASTER!  THE PRISONERS ARE ESCAPING!" he shouted in his scratchy voice, hoping that someone would hear him.  What he did was pull down a lever and make sure a DarkTyrannomon would come chasing after the two digimon who broke out.

  "Lady Myotismon, they caught us!" shouted the dark sorcerer, running even faster.

  "AAAAAAAAAAAA!" screamed the vampire lady, looking over he shoulder and seeing a silhouette of something being let out of a prison room.  The rumbling from its steps and its robust body meant it was a dinosaur.  It was DarkTyrannomon, back to chase after them and treat himself to a little snack.  "RUN!"

  The sorcerer wanted to stay behind to fight, but it was too risky for much of his needed energy was running out.  The best thing to do was run.  So he ambled out the door, followed by Lady Myotismon, who showed no trepidation of the dazzling sunlight.  He actually thought she looked gorgeous with the light reflecting off her pale skin, but when he remembered that the dinosaur was chasing after him, he and Lady Myotismon tried to streak across the top of the mountain and started to run down, the dinosaur following on their trail and letting out a thunderous roar from his desire for a meal.

  They were running down a near-vertical path, covered by rocks and steep ledges, with hardly anything to hang onto.  The dinosaur hadn't given up in trying to pinpoint their location and enmesh them, to dine on them later.  Both virus digimon tried to be careful not to trip as they ran even faster as the ground declined, trying to avoid the rocks and vines.  The ground recurrently vibrated every two seconds as DarkTyrannomon pursued them.  Suddenly a root just protruded out of the ground.  Necromamon avoided the root, but Lady Myotismon accidentally tripped over it and fell down, roughly cascading down the side of the mountain until she stopped at a cliff.

  "GATOMON!" shouted the dark sorcerer, rushing over to his dear friend and bending down to try to aid her.

  "Wizardmon?" asked the vampire lady, gazing at the dark sorcerer.  She was battered up and scratched up with a black eye, a twisted ankle, and it was all topped off by the long cut running down the side of her face.  She winced and closed her eyes.  "Save yourself!"

  "RRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!" roared the dinosaur, cantering over to where the two helpless gijinka digimon were, drooling from his voracious nature.  He was delighted to see that they were cornered, and if they tried to escape, they would plummet a great height to their deaths.

  "He's going to kill us!" shouted Lady Myotismon.  "Lord Myotismon must have sent it on us!"

  "Quit calling him Lord Myotismon!" shouted Necromamon.  "We've escaped him!"  He took his staff and brandished it.  "DARK SPELL!"  It flew out and hit the dinosaur on the chest, but not doing any drastic damage.  The dinosaur roared again.  The sorcerer tried his Black Thunder, but it had almost the same effect.  It did close to nothing except make the dinosaur even more antagonized than he had been.

  "There's nothing to do, Wizardmon!" shouted Lady Myotismon.

  "I must protect you… somehow… Gatomon…" whispered Necromamon.  _If I use the staff to fly, it might work… then again, only Incantemon can do so, and I have never flown on my staff before._  "Gatomon?  I am going to try to fly off the cliff."

  "Are you insane?" hissed Lady Myotismon.  "It's too dangerous?"

  "I must try," said the dark sorcerer, standing up and helping the vampire lady up as well.  He mounted his moon staff and helped her onto it.  Right before DarkTyrannomon was about to reach down and grab them, he leapt off the cliff, which was hundreds of thousands of feet above the ground.  He concentrated on trying to make the staff grow wings as Lady Myotismon let out a high-pitched scream.  Suddenly he uttered the first word that came to mind:

  "_ESCLÉ!_"  Which meant, "fly!"

  All of a sudden, the moon part of the staff transformed into a pair of black wings on the side of the staff.  The falling staff ceased its fall in midair and hovered in midair for two seconds before flying off to its destination.

  "Where are we going, Wizardmon?" asked Lady Myotismon, clutching onto Necromamon's robes.

  "Wherever the wind takes us," replied the sorcerer.  "Away from the digi-hell that is Myotismon's castle."

  The staff glided through the air, not to land until the mountain range was no longer in sight.

  To be continued…


	10. DarkLillymon: The Savior and Slayer

A/N: Thank you to our new reviewer, Angel of the Dark!  Thanks to everyone else, and now for more responses to the reviews.

**_To Sabrina Black: _**Yah it is a dilemma… should Wiz and Gato escape, or will I resort to having Myo win?  I guess this is what you call "soon."

**_To Avalon: _**I won't beat him up too bad… yah we do need Myotismon for a lot of fics!

**_To Angel of the Dark: _**Thanks for your review!  Well this is what happens next!

**_To Jes: _**It's OK if you forgot.  Here's more of the fic!

**_To DuchessRaven: _**I like those kinds of reviews!  I'm sorry about what happens when it loads, but it's cool that you have it printed out.

**_To Shadow Rider: _**What, no pointless review? :P

**_To Devidramon: _**Yah, I did the "retreat" thing so it wouldn't be the end of the story, but it could still be an ending.

**_To CheeseWizardmon: _**Hope your science project went well…

**_To Blackout12's first review: _**Glad you like the poetry!

**_To Blackout12's second review: _**Thanks!  I guess even without a cilffhanger people still want to read the next part!

**_To blackmage718:_** Phantomon says "You're welcome!"  I think I'll keep the little guy around here!

To all of you: In this chapter, it's going to be about life outside of the castle, and how Necromamon and Lady Myotismon are going to cope with having other digimon seeing them this way.  This isn't going to be short because I have a lot of ideas and a lot of time now that school's out.  Actually, this is a long chapter.  BTW, I made up DarkLillymon.  Enjoy!

Chapter 10: DarkLillymon, the Savior and Slayer 

  The flight had gone on for hours, with a continuous flight through the cool evening air on Necromamon's staff.  The two weary digimon had landed in a secluded and shady wood, near a small cave that was resting between two tall hiding trees.  It was the perfect place for the two digimon to set camp at and acquire sanctuary.

  "This is the perfect place to hide out," declared Necromamon, whose staff landed effortlessly on the ground.  He and Lady Myotismon slid off the staff, and the staff's wings transformed into the familiar moon orb on top.  "No one will be able to find us or track us down."  The sorcerer stepped into the cave, which was large enough to stand or recline in comfortably.  "We must leave by the crack of dawn tomorrow, for I do know that someone is trying to track us down.  Perhaps it is DarkTyrannomon with his uncanny sense of smell, or perhaps it is the Bakemon, who travel in large numbers and can hide anywhere.  Or most likely it is Myotismon himself.  We must get our rest, then flee on my staff, as far away as we can.  By the time anyone picks up our tracks, we will be long gone."

  Lady Myotismon was doubtful.  "What if Myotismon has henchmen where we're running to?" she questioned.

  The dark sorcerer's face was stern.  Not even his best and closest friend had seen that expression on his face before.  "We must take that chance, Gatomon," he stated.  "We will possibly find a way to de-digivolve."

  The vampire lady thought of those words as the most beautiful and profound words of all.  _When I was Gatomon, I thought nothing of de-digivolving.  I actually thought of it as disappointing, and would give anything to digivolve to ultimate again.  And when I was able to digivolve at will, I just did that and de-digivolved without thinking, just taking it all for granted.  And now I'll give anything to de-digivolve.  ANYTHING!_  A clear tear ran down her pale cheek as she mentally pleaded to be Gatomon again.

  The sorcerer placed a hand on her shoulder as if to comfort her.  "Everything will be all right again, Gatomon," he reassured.  "I'll try to find a way."

  "But what about… what about Incantemon?"

  "I believe he'll find us."  Necromamon set his staff against the mouth of the cave and began to gather whatever sticks and twigs he could find.  "He was able to locate me when I was inside the castle.  He must be searching for us right now."

  Lady Myotismon started to collect brush to add to the fire and set it down on the floor of the cave.  Necromamon laid the sticks down.  Then he grabbed his staff and set it securely behind a rock.  He conjured a flame and set it on the kindling.  The fire grew into a blaze that flooded the cave with light and warmth.

  Light and warmth… those were two amenities that couldn't be attained in Myotismon's castle.  The castle was almost too dim to clearly see, and nearly chilly enough that one could see their breath.  Necromamon had always felt cold and clammy inside the castle, no matter what.  And the outdoors had the soothing scent of leaves and flowers, unlike the musty castle.

  "This place is better than the castle," observed Lady Myotismon.

  The sorcerer nodded in agreement, feeling quite famished.  He hadn't eaten a decent meal in a long time, and he longed for a drink of water and some luscious fruit, possibly a cooked fish.  "We must eat," he declared.  "As well as save more food for our long journey."

  "But Wizardmon… have you forgotten?  My sustenance comes from blood…"

  "Take mine if you must—"

  "No, I would rather starve than harm you."  Lady Myotismon stared into the fire.  "I can't live on blood.  I'd rather starve to death than harm a friend."

  "I'll try to find something else for you then… fish blood… or another fluid…"  The sorcerer arose and left without his staff.  As he left the clearing in search of a river and fruit trees, he got the feeling that his presence was detected by other digimon.  After a few minutes of walking, he emerged from the deepest section of the woods, finding a nice clearing, which had a river in a deep ravine and a cluster of trees covered by bunches of juicy red apples.  He looked into the ravine and could see shimmering fish swimming in the river.

  Then he heard a soft rustling in the bushes near him.  It couldn't have been anyone coming to assist him.  Trying to ignore it, Necromamon gracefully leapt into the ravine and landed in the creek, soaking his robes up to his waist.  He could see the bounty of fish swimming around him.  Reaching down, he grabbed one.  Seeing it squirm for its life, the dark sorcerer felt compassion for the being and released it from his grip.

  To not harm anything else, he tried to climb up the steep and slippery sides of the ravine, clutching hold of anything that protruded from the rocks and the dirt.  As he set a hand on the bank, he felt it being crunched.  Necromamon looked up, then found himself staring directly into the eyes of a bunch of Gekomon, one of which had its flipper on his hand.

  "Get out of our territory!" demanded the lizard digimon.  He took the mouthpiece of his horn and blew into it, blaring a strong note that echoed throughout the forest and causing the sorcerer to wail from the discordant noise and accidentally let go, then drop into the creek, causing his robes to get soaked.  Each of the Gekomon leapt gracefully into the small river and onto rocks.  Each of them was eyeing the sorcerer in a suspicious way, not blinking.

  A profound hush fell upon the entire area, with hardly a sound, until one of the other Gekomon spoke up.  "I know who that is!  That's Necromamon, the dark sorcerer who works for Myotismon!"

  "That's right," agreed a second lizard digimon.  "I remember word spreading all over Server!  He claims to still be Wizardmon, but how can he still be Wizardmon if he made Gatomon transform into that… Lady Myotismon??!!  He's EVIL!"

  "It's nothing like that," contended the dark sorcerer.  "I was tortured into doing the evil deeds!  I never wanted Gatomon to be that way!"

  All of the lizard digimon still wouldn't believe him.  "We know you'll take over our Little Edo when you have the chance, and overthrow ShogunGekomon, and—"

  "Quick!  Let's attack him before he has the chance!"

  "SYMPHONY CRUSHER!" shouted all of the Gekomon, lunging at Necromamon and beating him up.  For rookies, their attacks were powerful.  Each one hit him even harder until he laid down in the water, and his face was covered by water.  He couldn't breathe, and he tried to sit up, but a few Gekomon were sitting on his chest and pinning him down.  The lizard digimon were redundant, for his heavy robes did the same thing.

  "Will you stay away from our territory?" asked the Gekomon.

  The sorcerer tried to speak out "Yes!" but all that came out were a few air bubbles and a muffled sound.

  "What did you say?  Did you say 'No'?"

  Out came a "YES!" that came out as *blub*s.  He was beginning to turn a shade of blue.  His vision was getting quite fuzzy, and blacker by the second.

  A glint of silver came from above him, then dark and silver colors blurred into sight, followed by a loud, high cry of "LEAVE HIM ALONE!"  The sound of metal hitting metal, then what looked like a Gekomon disintegrating.  "And let that be a lesson to the rest of you!"

  A hand grabbed the back of the dark sorcerer's robes and pulled him out of the river.  Necromamon took an extremely deep breath as he gasped for air, his breathing extremely fast.  He grabbed onto one of the rocks and leaned against it, feeling the cold currents wash against him.  He closed his eyes and, panting, said, "You saved my life.  I'm forever grateful."

  "I don't need any compliments," said the sorcerer's savior.  "I've been like you and your friend longer than either of you combined."  Necromamon got a look at her.  She resembled Lillymon, only the pink blossom had been replaced by what looked like a scarlet tiger lily.  Her costume was a dress of the same color, with crinkly brown strangler vines wrapping around it.  Her skin was gray, and her eyes were black.  Four fairy wings, not spread out, were on her back.  The wings were black and had jagged edges.  She carried a silver sword.  "I am DarkLillymon, the dark digivolution of Togemon.  I, too, was made a virus, for I was in the same clan as Mimi Tachikawa's Palmon, and I wished to be the first to digivolve.  I came back as a Togemon, then tried to digivolve to protect my brothers and sisters.  Unfortuantely, I ended up as this and haven't been able to digivolve ever since…"  A tear ran down her cheek.  "I was forced to go into hiding and live in the shelters of the forests… I knew all that was going on.  Which was good.  For when Piedmon and the other Dark Masters transformed the land into Spiral Mountain, that clown had heard of me and so he searched all over to put me in his army.  Lucky for me, I had escaped from his soldiers."

  "You had it better than I had," replied Necromamon.  "When I was Auramon, I tried to digivolve because I promised my brother I would.  I went to a diner and got advice from a Digitamamon, and then traveled to a castle that is far away now, but still on Server.  I was given a potion that would make me digivolve to Wizardmon, and then I dark digivolved three times.  And I was given a different potion much later that made me permanently dark digivolve."

  The dark pixie leapt through the water and laid her hand on the sorcerer's shoulder.  "Don't worry about it; we will find the four digi gods in time."

  "Digi gods?"

  "The four Guardians of the Digiworld.  Azulongmon, Ebonwumon, Baihumon, and Zhuquiaomon.  Legend tells that they can reverse any dark digivolution, no matter how potent the potion.  Now tell me… who gave you the potion?"

  Necromamon took a deep breath.  "Well… he's… he's… he's the one who made the potion.  He's Myotismon."

  "Myotismon?"

  "Yes, he's a nasty one.  You don't want to get on his bad side."

  "I think he might have given me the potion… tell me, what does he look like?"

  "I wish to not remember."

  "What does he look like?"

  "Fine, I'll tell you… he's blonde, has blue eyes, pale skin, and has a red mask, blue suit, a black cape… and fangs.  It's the fangs that distinguish him the most.  You see, he's a vampire, and one of the nastiest ones out there as well."

  "You don't say… I think he was the one who gave me the potion!"

  "But my friend is his female counterpart.  She was also given the potion and dark digivolved from Gatomon, but she's still Gatomon.  Should I call you Palmon?"

  "That would be nice.  I haven't been addressed by my true and rightful name before."

  She took the dark sorcerer, flew up, and set him down on the bank.  Then she flew down and speared twelve fish with her sword and came back up a few minutes later.  Then she flew up and gathered apples in her dress.  She came back with their meal.

  "I have plenty of food to last us a long time," said DarkLillymon.  "Come on, let's go to your hideout.  Where are you living?"

  The dark sorcerer walked back to the cave, followed by the dark pixie, who was flying behind him.  Back at the cave, they met Lady Myotismon, who was standing at the entrance.

  "Welcome back, Necromamon.  You look drenched," said the vampire lady.  "Come and warm up by the fire."

  "Are you Lady Myotismon?" wondered DarkLillymon.

  "Why yes, I am," replied Lady Myotismon.  "I once was Gatomon before I, too, dark digivolved.  Who are you?"

  "I am DarkLillymon," answered DarkLillymon.  "I suffered the same fate as you and Necromamon.  I brought some food.  Sure it isn't much, but it's the only food in these parts and can fortify our appetites through the night."  She put some of the fish in the fire and set the apples on the floor.  She gave some live fish to Lady Myotismon and said, "These fish have plenty of rich blood.  I should know.  It is nowhere near as good as human blood to your standards, but it is the best in these parts without being anywhere near a savage brute like your male counterpart."

  That night, everyone had eaten well, and their hunger had been satisfied.  A fire, once roaring and flooding the cave with heat, had died down.  The weary Necromamon and Lady Myotismon were sleeping peacefully on the floor, while DarkLillymon was awake.  Making sure that the two digimon were sound asleep, she slipped out of their refuge and deep into the forests.

  "DarkLillymon," said a voice.

  "Yes master?" asked the dark pixie.

  A communication orb appeared, and an image of Myotismon appeared in the middle of the orb.  He was sitting in his throne, seething mad, holding a glass of wine and glaring at DarkLillymon.  "Have you tracked them down yet?"

  DarkLillymon bowed.  "I have found Necromamon and Lady Myotismon, master.  I have yet to find the three other runaways."

  Incantemon, Erika, and Kari were on their way.  The three of them had crashed through the castle walls just briefly after they found Kari, who turned up just seconds after the wedding fiasco.  They were riding on the light sorcerer's staff, tracking down the path of the two other escapees.  The staff had taken off just mere minutes after Necromamon's staff took off.  They had followed him for miles and landed on the ground to see DarkLillymon speaking to the viewing orb.

  "Find Incantemon and bring him to me," said the vampire.  "As well as Kari and Incantemon's partner.  I wish to make them all slaves to me."

  "Yes, Lord Myotismon," said the pixie.  "I will not fail you."

  "You had better not fail me, or I will throw you in the pit."

  "Yes.  I have lulled the two viruses into thinking I care for them and I will attack them in their sleep.  When I find the others, I will fight them and bring all five of them to you.  Dead, not alive."

  "We have to get out there and fight her," whispered Erika.

  Incantemon nodded.  He knew it was time.  He stepped out from behind the bush, with the two digi-destined following.  "Well, DARKLillymon, you sure do live up to your name!"

  The dark pixie gasped as she turned her head to see none other than Incantemon, Kari, and Erika standing near her, ready to fight them.

  "Fight them," said Myotismon.  "Next time I see you I hope to see you carrying Incantemon's head!"  The viewing orb disappeared.

  DarkLillymon growled at the three good guys.  "I see you three have arrived just in time," she said.  She took a cannon, and a gigantic plant that resembled the Venus Flytrap appeared out of the mouth of the cannon.  "VENUS DIGITRAP!"  The plant was shot out of the cannon and started chomping at nothing as it shot out at Erika and Kari.  It confined the two in it, and the jagged teeth kept them from trying to escape.

  "SORCERER'S SWORD!" shouted the light sorcerer, lunging at the dark pixie, slashing the plant apart on his way.  Her wings were slashed off, and they shriveled up and disintegrated as they hit the ground.

  "Ha ha!" the pixie haughtily laughed.  "As long as I'm alive, your friends are trapped!"  The Venus Digitrap had repaired itself, still confining the two girls within it.  "As Lord Myotismon controls the darkness and the violent weather, I have the ability to control all plants!"  She extended a hand, and a firm, brown vine crept along the ground and grabbed hold of Incantemon's foot, securing him onto the ground.  It split into two vines and wrapped around the other foot.

  "NECROMAMON!" screamed the good sorcerer.

  Suddenly Necromamon woke up.  He shook Lady Myotismon awake.

  "What's wrong, Wizardmon?" asked the vampire lady.

  "It's Incantemon," replied the dark sorcerer.  "He is near, and in grave peril.  We must save him right away."  He stood up, grabbed his staff, and ran faster than he could along the ground.  Lady Myotismon followed, running her fastest as well.

  "There is no way to save yourself," said DarkLillymon as the vines wrapped around his waist, hands, arms, and up his chest.  "Your friends cannot save you."

  "I can… try," grunted the sorcerer as he tried to reach for his sword.  Then he realized he was holding his staff.  He was going to summon a fire incantation for his attack.  "INCANTATION—  RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"  The staff was forced out of his hands, and the vines had secured themselves around his neck.

  "I know where he is," said Necromamon, running.

  "But what if we don't find them in time?" asked Lady Myotismon.

  "I know he's here… HOLD ON BROTHER, I'M COMING!"

  The two ran on.

  "INCANTEMON!" screamed Kari, trying to rip the Venus Digitrap apart with her hands.

  "Ne— cro— ma— ghhhhhhhh" The good sorcerer could hardly speak as he felt his air being cut off.  He was doubtful that his brother would be able to save him in time.

  "MAGICAL SWORDS!" shouted a voice.

  "What the bloody hell?  NECROMAMON???!!!"  DarkLillymon's eyes were wide as she saw the dark sorcerer and the vampire lady emerge from behind a cluster of trees.  The dark sorcerer was holding a sword, which he used to slash the vines apart.  Incantemon fell to the ground, gasping.  "I never meant to nearly suffocate your dear brother," she libeled.

  "Don't listen to her!" said a muffled voice that belonged to Erika.  "She works for Myotismon!"

  "You work for Myotismon?" asked the dark sorcerer.

  "Please don't believe the girl," said the dark pixie.  "I have lived here for most of my life.  I'm here to help you."

  Not wishing to make a threat, Necromamon took his sword and held it about a foot away from DarkLillymon's chest.  Still, he wanted the truth.  "I wish for the truth," he demanded.

  "I refuse to tell you the truth."

  "Look into her mind," came a whisper.  The dark sorcerer's brother knew that looking into anyone's mind would help them know the truth.

  Necromamon concentrated and heard a voice.  _I wish to help them, but I can't disobey Lord Myotismon's orders.  I must fight them and annihilate them._

  "You do work for Myotismon!" exclaimed the dark sorcerer.

  "Fine, I do," admitted DarkLillymon.  "I've worked for him for a very long time.  In fact, he sent me out here to kill you, and that is what I will do!  VENUS DIGITRAP!"

  The chomping plant headed towards the three digimon.  Necromamon slashed it apart with his sword and pointed his staff right at DarkLillymon.  "DARK SPELL!"  The dark energy hit the pixie hard enough to knock her out.

  "LOOK OUT, WIZARDMONS!" shouted Kari, peeking through a hole she had ripped in the plant.  "Lady Myotismon is behind you!"

  "Kari… I'm Gatomon," said the vampire lady.  Still, the young girl wouldn't listen to her.

  DarkLilymon recovered and grew very enraged.  "VINE SCOURGE!"  Two thick, green vines with sharp leaves extended from her hands and started whipping the two sorcerers, who fell down to the ground, getting beaten, just as they had with Myotismon.  It wasn't nearly as bad as the whippings from the Crimson Lightning, but it was worse than getting whipped by a normal one because there were sharp leaves that could slash through a tree trunk.  They had been nearly mauled to death after five whips.  Both were on the ground, cringing in pain, their robes being soaked with blood.  Lady Myotismon was the only one standing and free.

  "NO!" Kari screamed.

  "DarkLillymon, you have harmed my friends," said the vampire lady.  "Now I shall avenge them!  This is for Incantemon and Erika!  VIOLET TEMPEST!"

  A purple tornado whirled onto the ground and sucked the pixie into its cloud, spinning around and suddenly hurling her against the tree.  She was very bruised and battered up, but still standing.

  "And this is for me and Kari!  RAGING NIGHTMARE!"

  A small cloud of bats flew out and started ripping DarkLillymon's flowers and dress apart.  She was now scratched up.  Only one last attack was needed and she would be destroyed.  She was kneeling on the ground.

  "Finally, this is for Wizardmon, my dearest friend!  CRIMSON LASH!"  The slashing bolt of Crimson Lightning flew out and got lodged in the dark pixie's stomach and went right through her until the other point emerged from her back.  She started to break up around the attack, then fell onto the ground.  She looked up weakly as Erika and Kari stepped out of their wilted trap.  The two sorcerers looked up.

  "I'm sorry I had to nearly kill all of you," whispered DarkLillymon as a tear rolled down her cheek and onto the ground.  "I- I was only following Lord Myotismon's orders…"  Weakly she took her sword and handed it to Necromamon.  "Take my sword… present it to the digi gods… they can help you…"  Suddenly her face grew pale as she fell to the ground.

  Lady Myotismon stooped down and took DarkLillymon's chin in her hand, her blue eyes glittering with compassion and shame.  "I'm so sorry I had to kill you… I was only avenging my friends…"  She began to cry as well.

  "I understand now," said the dark pixie.  "Good luck, Necromamon and Lady Myotismon…"  With that, she completely disintegrated except for the sword.

  Kari walked over to the vampire lady.  "You really ARE Angewomon in disguise," she said.  "You are my digimon partner.  I should know after the way you saved me and the others like that.  I'm sorry I ever doubted you."

  "And now DarkLillymon is gone thanks to my wrongful doings," said Lady Myotismon.  "She could have helped us…"

  "But you didn't know, and you could have been destroyed if you hadn't followed your instincts.  Without you, we wouldn't have lived," Erika reminded her.

  "With DarkLillymon destroyed, there is no way you'll be able to stop them, master," said Demidevimon, perching on Myotismon's throne.

  "Not exactly," said the vampire, staring into his viewing orb.  "There is one more hope for us.  They will be going to the digi gods soon, and I have a feeling the key to their defeat lies closer than we may think."

To be continued…


	11. Journey to the Guardians

A/N: I hate what happened with the ffnet!!!!  I would have put this on sooner but since it was before June 21, and June 24…  I'm sorry but it wasn't my fault… it's the software's fault… I'm also planning a sequel, so you'll be seeing more of Wizardmon, Gatomon, and Auramon.  THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE THE LAST CHAPTER!!!!  Now for responses

**_To Shadow Rider: _**Thanks to the stupid ffnet, you couldn't have signed in on 6-15… thanks for an un- "ptless" review!

**_To Angel of the Dark: _**Glad you like long chapters!  I do too.

**_To blackmage718: _**I fired Phantomon.  Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

**_To Devidramon: _**Thanks!  I liked her powers too.

**_To Sabrina Black: _**FV FOR LIFE, or at least as long as the ffnet is up… :P

**_To CheeseWizardmon:_** You'll find out about what "Mayotismon" will do in this chapter…

To all of you: Very slight cliffhanger alert!  I hope more of you are able to r/r without some defects getting in the way… This is also the last chapter with Myotismon in it… well here's the long-delayed chapter 11!  Enjoy!

Chapter 11: Journey to the Guardians

  The group of five had traveled for days.  They knew it would take weeks, possibly months, to reach Azulongmon, especially on foot.  They had learned that making the staff float in the air would take away its powers if used too long, so all of them had to resort to traveling by foot.

  It happened on the third day of travel.  They were flying over a river, and above the clouds.  The forest and the Necromamon and Lady Myotismon were riding on the dark sorcerer's staff.  Incantemon, Erika, and Kari were riding on the other one.  Both were flying at the same level until suddenly Necromamon's staff started declining and the dark wings on the side started to flap slowly.

  "What happened?" asked Lady Myotismon.

  "I don't know; it's never happened to me before," replied Necromamon.

  "Get it to come back up here!" shouted Kari.  The staff and its riders were now twenty feet below the other one, and still dropping.

  "Wizardmon, do something," said the vampire lady as the staff plunged upright to the ground.  She clung onto the dark sorcerer's robes.

  "I can try," replied the dark sorcerer.  "ESCLÉ!" he shouted.  The staff ceased its dropping for two seconds before it started plummeting to the ground below once again.

  The light sorcerer took a quick glance and swooped down as quickly as he could, Erika and Kari screaming as they clutched onto his robes.  Necromamon and Lady Myotismon clutched onto the staff as Necromamon still held onto his, which had transformed back.  Suddenly, the extra weight caused Incantemon's staff to drop down to the ground slowly.  Then the rate sped up.

  "You're too heavy!" shouted Kari.  "One of you has to get off or none of us will live!"

  _Myotismon can fly, so I believe I can too,_ thought the vampire lady.  She took a quick look at the group of four, then let go of the staff.  She quickly fell to the ground, then stopped in midair.  She could fly as well.  With her cape blowing behind her, she rose up to the others.  "Let me take that staff for you, Wizardmon," she said, taking the dark sorcerer's staff.

  The dark sorcerer was incredulous.  "Gatomon… you can fly?"

  Suddenly the questioning was interrupted by the staff slowly but steadily dropping again.

  "What's going on?" wondered Erika.

  "We've been flying for three days now," replied her digimon partner.  "I think the staffs are losing their magical powers!"  Suddenly the staff lost all its powers and they all plummeted down at an alarming speed and landed in the river with five huge splashes.  Necromamon nearly sank to the bottom until Erika swam down and pulled him out.  All of them swam to the edge and climbed onto the bank to rest.  There were no forests or anything for miles.  In the distance there looked like a golden city.

  "Why don't we go there," suggested the youngest digi-destined.  "Maybe we can find a way to Azulongmon from there."

  So the five of them traveled on foot to the distant city.

  Two days had slowly passed.  Nights were short, and there were hardly any comfortable places to sleep, as well as the fact that there were many dangers present.  Any threatening digimon could spot them and remunerate them to Myotismon once again.  Still, the city had grown closer by the hour, giving each of the five travelers hope.

  They were sweltering hot in their discomforting clothes, and their feet felt as if they were on fire.  They were also bedraggled from days without bathing.  They were also starving, due to the lack of food.  The journey was long and silent; none of them could find a diverting subject to converse about.  Still, whenever they occasionally addressed each other, all of them had grown accustomed to calling Incantemon "Auramon," Lady Myotismon "Gatomon", and Necromamon "Wizardmon."  Necromamon was satisfied that they addressed him by the name of his true self.

  "Look," said Kari, feebly pointing to the city.  It was in sight, and each of the buildings could be clearly seen.  The city was a golden city full of cylinder-shaped two-story buildings and other buildings that looked like ancient Japanese architectures.  The largest was a five-story silver tower, located right in the middle of the town square.  A volcano loomed over the city in the distance, like a guardian.

  They all picked up their pace, knowing that they were drawing even closer to the city.  Unfortunately, so was something else that could wipe out most of the digital world in seconds.

  "Master, according to my calculations, the brats should be arriving at the city, and if they stay there long enough, they will be destroyed.  Little Edo is in the direct path of the destroyer," said Demidevimon.  "Unfortunately, they could leave at any time."

  "Then we must make sure they don't leave," said Myotismon, staring into his viewing orb.  It showed the five weary travelers trudging along the ground to their desired destination.  "Ah, I see they are tired… perfect.  If they stay in Little Edo to sleep, and stay the entire morning, afternoon, and evening, they will be destroyed."

  "So is that a good thing?" the imp innocently inquired.

  "Of course it is, slave.  All we need is fate, and if they aren't captured I will personally take care of them."

  Finally, the five itinerants approached the wide golden gates in the tall brick wall that surrounded and guarded the city of Little Edo.  Through the bars of the gates, they could see the streets buzzing with activity.  There was a diner located not too far away, a white palace where Shogun Gekomon resided, a town square, markets, and plenty of small digimon were busily ambling from one destination to another.  Among them were Gekomon, Mushroomon, Gazimon, Gizamon, Gotsumon, and other digimon, mainly rookies.  A few champions and ultimates were in the crowd, but many, like Monochromon, were utilized for transporting hefty workloads.

  "This is the place," Erika declared in awe.  "Here we are…"

  A Monochromon turned its head towards the gate and grunted.  A Gekomon that was riding on its back leapt off and skipped over to the gate.  "Konnichi-wa," it greeted.  "Are you tired and weary from how much traveling you have done?"

  "Yes," replied Incantemon.  "It would be nice if we get a place to sleep and bathe," he added.

  "Well you've come to the right place!" exclaimed the amphibious digimon.  He opened the gate and escorted the five inside.  "Welcome to Little Edo, our humble town.  It is guarded by Azulongmon on his mountain in the distance."  He pointed towards the mountain.  Then he spotted Necromamon and Lady Myotismon, then eyed them suspiciously.  "Come on in.  Remember, you are always welcome in Little Edo.  Well… almost all of you."

  The dark sorcerer's face fell, knowing they were talking about him.  He lagged behind as they wandered through the streets.  Most of the digimon who were present were gawking at him and the vampire lady.  They both had a premonition the digimon knew about them by means of hearsay.  The Floramon were very chatty and loquatious, as well as being capable of spreading terrible rumors.  He even witnessed a Mushroomon whispering something to another Mushroomon.

  If the streets weren't humiliating enough, after the Gekomon led the five of them to the tallest building in the middle of the town square, he escorted Incantemon, Erika, and Kari inside.  "Come, my good friends," he said.  "This is the guest house, with a living environment suitable for luxury living before continuing on your journey."

  "Uh… can our friends come inside too?" asked Kari.  "She's my digimon partner and he's her friend…"

  "They are ultimate viruses!" shouted the Gekomon, waving his flippers around.  "Besides, I've heard of them!  She—"  He pointed a flipper at Lady Myotismon, who backed away.  Many digimon were looking at the incrimination.  Even the Monochromon were listening. "looks familiar!"

  "Whatever do you mean?" asked Lady Myotismon, knowing perfectly well what they meant.  Her pearly fangs gleamed in the light of the setting sun and were very noticeable against her purple lips.

  A Mushroomon gasped.  "She looks just like Myotismon!" he screamed.

  The crowd of digimon frantically backed about fifteen feet away and gawked at her and Necromamon.

  "So she must be… Lady Myotismon!" shouted the mushroom digimon.  "And that one over there… he must be Necromamon!"

  Hundreds of loud gasps could be heard from all the digimon.

  "I've heard of you!" declared the Gekomon.  "You're the two virals who are too evil for even Myotismon to handle.  You work for him and yet you want to be off on your own, conquering the digital world for yourself!"  Two Monochromons lumbered over and started plowing the two through the streets and through the gate, which slammed tightly shut.  The mob of digimon followed.  "And don't try anything funny; these gates are attack proof!  And I'll make sure neither of you can climb over, too!"  The Monochromons stared at the two viruses, who crouched onto the ground.  Gekomon stormed off towards the guest house.

  "But Gekomon, they're our friends!" protested Erika.  "They had to work for Myotismon against their own will!  It's not like they had a choice; they were digi-napped!"

  "Although he is a virus himself, Shogun Gekomon is a very friendly virus who is only cranky when he is woken up in the middle of his afternoon nap.  He is a very benevolent virus who acts like a data or vaccine—"

  "That's the exact way to describe Wizardmon and Gatomon, except for the sleeping part," said the teenage digi-destined.

  "I don't CARE!  I have an idea, why don't we ask Shogun Gekomon!" Gekomon harshly suggested.  He walked towards the large Japanese castle.

  The throne room was very large with clean wooden floors, white walls, wide windows which the golden evening sunlight streamed through, a sand garden, and it was decked with paintings, fans, and green plants.  Sitting very comfortably in a very large throne was an enormous, portly, and colorful frog-like digimon who was taking a nap and snoring loudly.

  "That's Shogun Gekomon, the emperor of Little Edo," familiarized the amphibious digimon.  "If any of us has a problem, he solves it.  He loves to eat and take naps in the afternoon.  HEY!  BOSS!" he shouted.  The large frog digimon opened one eye.  "These guys need your help!"

  "You interrupted my siesta for this?" asked the drowsy Shogun Gekomon in his sonorous voice, then sighed.  "It should be quick, so I can get a good snooze before dinner."

  "Should our friends be allowed in Little Edo?" wondered the light sorcerer.  "Please, say yes.  Wizardmon is my brother and Gatomon is his friend, but they were enforced to be transfigured into Necromamon and Lady Myotismon… they're still the same inside…"

  Shogun Gekomon blinked.  "Never!" he shouted, making it echo through the room.  Kari trembled and stepped back.  "Those two have been on the Digital World's Most Wanted list!  Posters of them are posted all over Starmon's Saloon!  Even Azulongmon knows about them and has been warned!  If anyone lets them into my city, they will be punished for their wicked deeds done in the digital world."

  "What?" gasped Erika.

  "I got the poster to prove it!" exclaimed Gekomon.  "Both are on the top ten most wanted list, and we must take all precautions to avoid being attacked by them."

  "Please leave," the large frog digimon amiably demanded.

  So in a few seconds, the three were escorted to the guest building.  It was neatly kept on the inside.  The first floor was a living room and a front hall that had a long, winding staircase.  There was plenty of food stored in the room on the second floor with a feast of mouth-watering food on the table, and on the third floor there was a bathroom with a large bathtub and all the necessary items for cleanliness.  On the fourth floor there was a room similar to Shogun Gekomon's throne room.  The fifth floor was an entire bedroom, with three beds just for the three of them.  All the rooms were circular, like the building, and about the size of a normal-sized bedroom.  Windows lined the walls, and the walls were painted peaceful colors.

  "Dinner is served," said a Mushroomon, entering the room as the delicious mouth-watering aroma of food wafted into the living room.  "I work here, to make your stay here a pleasant experience."

  Still, despite the luxuries, an awkward sensation was growing in Incantemon's stomach, and it was not from the lack of food.  He was concerned about his brother and Gatomon, and if they were going to survive through the night.  He remained concerned and silent throughout dinner, and so were Erika and Kari.  Throughout the evening, they made as much conversation as possible with the many Mushroomon and Gazimon that worked there.  Finally, after they had been cleansed and bathed, eaten a delicious meal, and were resting in their beds, the one thing that was on their minds was Necromamon and Lady Myotismon.  Erika was the first to finally drift off, for she didn't have a bond to the two which was as strong as her digimon or her friend.  The good sorcerer, after tossing and turning for a long time, 

  In the middle of the night, Kari stepped out of bed in her silky white nightgown which was given to her by the generous digimon.  She walked over to the window that faced the gate and stared out of it.  She could see the gate from a long ways away and make out two figures that appeared to be sleeping.

  "Gatomon… we'll see you again," whispered the young digi-destined.  Suddenly, a song came to mind that Gatomon used to sing… one that she sang herself to sleep with when she was Myotismon's servant… the song was called "Oh My Little One…"  With a quiver in her voice, she began to softly sing.

  "_The day's finally done…_

_   And night is here…_

_  Oh my little one,_

_  Please have no fear…_

_  Have dreams of glory_

_  And days gone by…_

_  Oh my little one,_

_  Please don't you cry…_

_  Evil can't come near_

_  Your heart of good…_

_  Oh my little one,_

  Dream like you should…" 

Suddenly another verse just seemed to come to mind.  Kari knew the fourth stanza very well, but seeing her two friends banished to the outside caused powerful song lyrics to rush through her mind and escape through her lips…

_  "Outside the gate_

_   Is where you are…_

_  Oh my little ones,_

_  You can't be far…_

_  Banished in the world_

_  You were welcome in…_

_  Oh my little ones,_

_  To evil you seem akin…_

_  You're forever virus,_

_  But can't they see?_

_  You're good inside…_

_  Please…_

_  Come back to me…" _

  Gently weeping, Kari sat on the ground, curled up into a fetal position beneath the window, and cried herself to sleep.

  Hours later, outside, the air grew more blustery than ever, with chilly wind blowing around Necromamon and Lady Myotismon and nearly freezing them.  As the wind speed grew from a gust to a gale, a dense fog rolled in from the west.

  The dark sorcerer woke up as a sudden gust of wind grew so brisk he couldn't take it.  The vampire lady had her cape to warm herself up, but none of his robes could adapt to extreme weather.  He was also concerned about his staff, so he gripped it even more tightly as he fought to keep himself warm.

  "Gatomon!  Wake up!" whispered Necromamon, shaking Lady Myotismon awake.  She was shivering even when she was wrapped up tightly in her cape.  Her dress was too thin and revealing to keep her warm, and much of her heat escaped through her cape.

  "What's wrong, Wizardmon?" asked Lady Myotismon, still shivering.

  "I can't take it!  If only we were data and vaccines again, then we would be welcome in Little Edo and—"

  "Yes, but… well… can't you see?  Are you not used to this form already?"

  "Actually… I feel I am accustomed to this new body, as I have been this way for what feels like an eternity."

  "I hate to say this, but… I sort of feel comfortable in this form.  Remember when you first digivolved to Wizardmon?  Remember?"

  "Yes… I did get used to it after a while, but I didn't want to be Necromamon again.  Look at me now!  Look at you now!"

  "But you do look very handsome in that stage.  I mean, you looked very cute and huggable as Wizardmon, but now you look so…"

  "And you're very beautiful as Lady Myotismon, but I'd love to see you as an adorable little Gatomon."

  The two held hands and looked into each other's eyes before interrupted.

  "Aw, the lovebirds!  How sweet!" exclaimed a small but energetic voice from behind them.  Both their heads turned to see…

  "Demidevimon!" exclaimed the dark sorcerer, seeing the pesky imp flapping his wings.  "How did you find us!"

  "Ah, I've known where you were for a very long time," said another familiar voice as the fog rolled in.  Some bats also flew in and perched upside-down on the fence and on the branches of a tree that was next to the gate.  Suddenly, the wind speed picked up and a figure came in through the fog, walking towards the two banished digimon.  Finally, his face could be seen.  "I see you and my counterpart have been getting along just fine with each other… but not getting along with the other digimon," he said, grinning and baring his fangs.  _It's not too far away,_ he thought.  _All I need to do is keep them occupied for the time being…_

  "Oh great," muttered Necromamon, trying to withhold his fear.  "Just what we need, in the midst of being dirty and tired and hungry and above all: cold, Myotismon comes along and rubs it in our faces."  He stood up and brandished his staff, which began to glow.  "I'm not letting you capture me OR Gatomon again!"

  "That's what you think," said the vampire.  "GRISLY WING!"  A huge army of bats flew out from under his cape and at Necromamon, tearing his robes.

  "CRIMSON LASH!" shouted Lady Myotismon, hurling a small bolt of Crimson Lightning at her male counterpart, who blocked it with his cape.

  "You amuse me, Gatomon, thinking you can measure up to me," said Myotismon.  He strode up to her and grabbed her wrist, digging his sharp claw-like nails into her tender skin.  Lady Myotismon cried out in pain.  "You will be mine this time," he declared.

  The dark sorcerer began to see red.  Never, no way in digi-hell was his friend going to be tormented and possessed again.  He pointed his staff right at the vampire and aimed it directly at him, where his cape wasn't protecting him.  "DARK SPELL!" he shouted, letting out a blast of dark energy and hitting Myotismon's chest.

  "RRRR!" growled Myotismon, narrowing his eyes at Necromamon.  "NIGHTMARE CLAW!"  He paralyzed Necromamon in his tracks, making him prone to attacking.  A red glow formed around his hand, ready to form a bolt of Crimson Lightning.

  _I can't let this happen!_ thought Lady Myotismon as her male counterpart was about to nearly kill her friend.

  "CRIMSON LIGHTNING!"  Myotismon whipped the bolt of lightning right at Necromamon, singing his robes and nearly setting him on fire from the inside.  The dark sorcerer clenched his teeth, trying his best not to cry out, though the pain was overwhelming and he could feel himself bleeding from the whip of lightning.  "CRIMSON LIGHTNING!"  Another whip, this time burning him on the outside.  Necromamon could feel something warm and wet run down his chest in a vertical river, staining his robes with a dark red and causing him to keel over, but not scream out.  He couldn't show his pain… he mustn't lose…  One more blast and he was sure to die.

  "AAAAAAAAAAH!" he cried out loudly, bending over even worse and nearly blacking out.

  "NO!" screamed the vampire lady as her male counterpart formed another bolt of Crimson Lightning.  Although she thought utilizing her fangs for attack would be highly unorthodox, she decided to bite Myotismon right on the arm that was holding her, piercing two holes in the cloth and the skin, staining a part of his suit dark red as blood flowed out of the wound.  She spat out the blood, trying to get the taste of the blood out of her mouth as the vampire let go of her, causing her to run in front of the dark sorcerer and take the attack for him.

  "RAGING NIGHTMARE!" she screamed, sending out an army of bats at Myotismon, trying to get them to rip him apart.

  "GRISLY WING!"  The bats from the vampire's attack countered his female counterpart's, and the bats fought and fought and all of them got ripped to shreds.

  Necromamon was badly injured, and one more attack could kill him for sure, but he had to try.  He weakly held his staff above his head and cried out, "BLACK THUNDER!"  A bolt of jet-black lightning shot out from the staff right at Myotismon, hitting his chest and knocking him to the ground.  Lady Myotismon helped the dark sorcerer stand up and guided him to the vampire, who was still on the ground and winded from the blow.  She helped him take the sword and assisted in him swinging it.  She decided to add her Crimson Lash to the sword, making it even more potent.

  They both shouted the attack at the same time, as if they could read each other's thoughts.  For when two digimon worked together to combine their attacks, they could almost read the other's minds.  "CRIMSON SWORD!" they both shouted, swinging the sword right at Myotismon… hitting him directly… as well as shocking him and ripping his cape and suit… where the suit was ripped there was a large gash that spanned his chest, and blood was flowing out of the wound.

  "Damn!  I did not anticipate such strength," said the vampire, clutching his chest.  He looked behind him and saw the sun rising and something else in the distance.  He weakly stood up and flew into the air.  "It is time I take my leave!  We shall see each other again!" he shouted, flying into the distance and Demidevimon following.

  "The sword was very powerful indeed," said Necromamon, bending over and clutching his chest where the Crimson Lightning had whipped him.  "Thank you…"

  Lady Myotismon took her cape and ripped a piece off of it long enough to wrap around her friend's chest.  She took it and wrapped it tightly around Necromamon's chest, using it as a makeshift bandage.  "Here, this can stop the blood… don't do anything too strenuous… I don't want you to die."

  Suddenly a deep rumbling was heard in the distance.  It sounded much like a giant freight train… or a tornado.  It was getting louder and more noticeable by the minute.

  "What is going on?" shouted Lady Myotismon, looking into the distance.  She had expected it to be the wind, but instead, it was a large column of spinning data, which was dark pink with pieces of colorful data whirling around it.  The column of data didn't look that large, but it stretched up into the sky and was over a mile in diameter.  It resembled a tornado, only it was more ominous.  It was a digital vortex, which could suck data out of the digital world into a wormhole and it would never return.

  "Oh no," groaned Necromamon.  "A digital vortex!  And if we don't do something, Little Edo, as well as our friends, will be history!"

To be continued… in the conclusion!


	12. Forever Virus

A/N: THIS IS THE FINAL CHAPTER OF FOREVER VIRUS!  Thanks to all of you for making this my most popular fic!  I'm glad you all like it!  Now for responses to your reviews.  I hate it that the ffnet was down and all that, and totally understand.

**_To Devidramon:_** I couldn't resist using those lines from the show!

**_To all those who would have reviewed if not for the ffnet being down:_** That's ok with me!  At least this chapter is reviewable.

Finally, to all of you: Thanks again for reviewing!  There WILL be a sequel (duh)!  And now, here's the conclusion, with a surprise ending.  EXTRA special thanks to Sabrina Black for helping me with the ending!  :)  WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH! (It is not Necromamon, so don't worry.)  I hope you like it!

Chapter 12: Forever Virus

  The digital vortex, rotating slowly, was closing in on Little Edo, sucking data out of the digital world like a powerful vacuum and leaving barren patches of black data where it went.  Its roar aroused every last citizen of the city, and screams uprose from every building as everyone rushed outside to the city square.  They could still see that the vortex was not going to change its course.

  Even Shogun Gekomon was beginning to panic as he ran through the halls, vibrating the ground and calling out his servants.  "Help me!  Save us!" he shouted.  "Our end is coming!"

  "Wake up!" shouted the Mushroomon that served the guests, pushing Incantemon, Erika, and Kari awake.

  Kari was still curled up at the window.  She struggled to open her eyes.  "What's wrong, Mushroomon?"

  "A digital vortex!" shouted the mushroom digimon.  "We must evacuate!"

  "Should we save them?" wondered Lady Myotismon.

  "Possibly…" Necromamon began.  _I mean, they treated us like dirt since we arrived, and I doubt they'll ever stop it, so why must we save them?  They wouldn't do the same for us.  But saving them is a way to earn their respect, and even if we weren't in these forms, we'd still save them, right?_  The dark sorcerer's eyes were fixated on the vortex.  He looked at Lady Myotismon's vibrant blue eyes and knew they were thinking the same thing.  "We must stop the vortex."

  "But you're wounded!" demured the vampire lady.  "If you fight something this potent and deadly you surely will die!"

  "A digimon," reminded Necromamon, "almost never dies.  He will get reconfigured in Primary Village.  If I get reconfigured, I will be reborn."

  "But the potion…" chastised Lady Myotismon, as the implications of the potion flew through her mind.  "It's for permanent digivolution, and you can never return to your champion, rookie, in-training, or baby stage ever again!  If you die… you die forever!"

  Tears started welling up in the dark sorcerer's eyes as the excrutiating pain in his chest spread through his entire body.  _Damn, this is terrible! _he thought.  _If I don't fight, the digital world will think I'm a callous digimon who lets other cities get destroyed but if I do fight, I could die forever without getting reconfigured._

  "Wizardmon!"  A familiar voice rang out.  Suddenly Incantemon leapt over the fence.  Erika and Kari, fully dressed, ran over to the gate and clutched onto the bars, not averting their eyes from the scene that was unfolding before their eyes.  "Wizardmon.  Gatomon.  I will fight the vortex.  I know exactly what you have been through, for I saw the ordeal you faced in my dream.  Please rest and try to heal, Wizardmon."  He grabbed his staff, the entire population of Little Edo monitoring.  He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, clutching the precious staff that had assisted him in nearly every fight possible.  "INCANTATION: FIRE!" he shouted when he was within a short distance.

  "Good luck!" shouted Necromamon.

  The blazing flames shot out of the staff and right at the vortex, swirling around it and becoming larger.  All of a sudden, the flames were absorbed into the giant column and disappeared.

  The good sorcerer wouldn't give up even as the column drew closer, tearing the ground right off the fields of data and leaving immense patches of black data.  He attempted a more powerful approach.  "INCANTATION: SHIELD!!"  He attempted to produce a crystal-clear barrier around the city, which resembled a thick bubble that was large enough to span Little Edo.  As the sorcerer fell to the ground, listless from the amount of energy the shield required, the vortex tore the shield out of the ground and sucked it up like a powerful vacuum.

  "It's not working," said Lady Myotismon.  "Stay here, Necromamon.  I must help your brother fight."

  "Please be careful, Gatomon," admonished the dark sorcerer, grabbing Lady Myotismon's hand and tugging on it, causing her head to turn and look at his pleading eyes.

  "Don't worry, Wizardmon," said the vampire lady.  "I know that our attacks together will blow the vortex away."  She quickly walked towards Incantemon, her long blonde hair flying behind her.

  Suddenly gasps arose from the crowd.  "Look!" a Mushroomon pointed out.  "Lady Myotismon is trying to keep Incantemon away from the vortex!"

  "RAGING NIGHTMARE!"  Lady Myotismon sent out a cloud of bats that zoomed towards the vortex, but were sucked into the vortex immediately.  "Let me help you, Incantemon," she offered.

  More gasps arose from the incredulous crowd as they witnessed Lady Myotismon, whom they had thought to be their adversary, was assisting their friend in battling a deadly force.

  "So she does have a grain of righteousness in her after all," mumbled Shogun Gekomon.  "She is allowed in the city, but NOT HIM!"  He pointed a webbed finger right at Necromamon, who hung his head in shame.

  "CRIMSON LASH!"  She let out a small bolt of Crimson Lightning, which was absorbed into the data.  She pulled a very weak Incantemon's arm, and they ran back a few feet so they wouldn't be destroyed either.  _What to do?_ she thought.  _Should I fight with my Violet Tempest and try to destroy the vortex?  Possibly, because they both have the attributes of a tornado._  She extended her arms, summoning purple clouds that flashed with lightning.  "VIOLET TEMPEST!" she shouted.  Suddenly more purple clouds whirled through the sky, blanketing everything in a bright purple light.  Rain rushed down from the clouds, soaking everything.  Wind blew through the area in a spiral shape, drawing clouds together to form a funnel.  The vampire lady kept her arms extended as the funnel dropped down from the cloud and touched the ground, forming a large purple tornado which was about half the size of the vortex.

  The vortex kept rotating and tearing the ground out of the digital world as the tornado ripped the grass and rocks out of the ground.  Suddenly both monstrous vortexes clashed in a whirl of wind, data, and debris.  Data and debris spewed all over the place and shot through the air.  And then the tornado was sucked into the vortex as more debris was blown out, hitting Incantemon and forcing his staff to fly out of his hands into the vortex.

  "MY STAFF!" cried the good sorcerer as the staff let out one final blast of magic, hitting him in the chest and forcing him to hit the fence around Little Edo, knocking the wind out of him.

  _I need to do something NOW, despite the pain_, thought Necromamon.  Despite the immense pain in his chest he planted his staff in the ground and stood up on it on trembling legs, clutching the wound in his chest, feeling the makeshift bandage get soaked with a fresh flow of his own blood.  He was feeling very dizzy and felt excruciating pain beyond belief, but he kept moving until he reached the vortex.  It was closing in.  Lady Myotismon was petrified and out of ideas.  He couldn't reach them in time, but maybe he could blow the vortex away not by attacking, but by a spell.  He had never performed the Time Freeze Incantation or even got it done correctly, but if he could freeze the vortex in place and perform a spell on it, he could destroy it.  _I don't know the words!  I need to know the words to the Time Freeze Incantation… I need to get it right or else it will be the end!_

  "What's the Myotismon-in-training doing?" wondered one of the digimon.

  "Contemplating suicide, I believe," replied another.

  "No," shouted the dark sorcerer.  "I am here to save the digital world!"  Suddenly the incantation ran through his mind at lightning speed and the words escaped his mouth as if they knew their way.  "_Ori knovlusi morid farron té eone suràn oru!  EONE, FARRON!!_"

  A blast of icy blue light shot out of the dark sorcerer's staff right at the vortex, freezing it in its position.  He ran up on a burst of energy, giving the vortex the full effect of his attack.  The bandage around his chest came undone, spilling blood down his chest, but he kept going on the sharp waves of pain.  There wasn't much time left to destroy the vortex.

  "Lady Myotismon!  I need your assistance!" he shouted.

  The vampire lady rushed over to Necromamon, and they both grabbed his sword and pointed it at the vortex.  "CRIMSON SWORD!" they both shouted, letting out sharp blasts of Crimson Lightning, breaking pieces of the vortex away and making those pieces disintigrate, but it wasn't nearly enough to completely finish it off.  Incantemon dragged himself over and laid his hand on the sword, contributing the last of his energy.  All three of them yelled, "CRIMSON SWORD!" letting out the largest bolt of Crimson Lightning at the vortex, with it spreading all over the vortex, about to explode.

  Suddenly, in a wave of blinding crimson light, there was a large boom of an explosion as the vortex exploded and disintegrated, sending out bursts of energy at the three digimon.  Necromamon let out a huge cry as the waves forced him back into nothingness of a blackout…

  He woke up in a bed with the soft white sheets, his head supported by a pillow.  He had been stripped of most of his robes down to his waist, and a large white blood-stained bandage was wrapped around his chest.  He was being surrounded by digimon, including Shogun Gekomon, Kari, many Gekomon, a myriad of Gazimon, all the Mushroomon, a few Gotsumons, and even two Monochromon.

  "Huh?" he asked listlessly.  "What happened?"

  "You and your friends have successfully destroyed the digital vortex," boomed Shogun Gekomon.  "Congratulations.  Your friend Lady Myotismon is in the bed next to yours."

  The dark sorcerer turned his head to see Lady Myotismon in the bed next to his, stripped down to her waist, with her arms and chest covered with a white blood-stained bandage.  She was minus her mask and cape, and the dark sorcerer could see the radiance of her lovely face that was hidden beneath the mask for a long time.

  "We made it," she whispered.  "We have made it through so much…"

  The dark sorcerer's lips curled into a weak smile as tears formed in his eyes.

  "But, I am afraid that Incantemon was not so lucky…" confessed the vampire lady, a tear rolling down her pale cheek.

  The second after Necromamon had blacked out, the entire population of Little Edo, along with Erika and Kari, rushed outside to see if the vortex had completely been gone.  As the sun began to rise, they laid eyes on their three saviors, two of which were viruses.  Necromamon's eyes were closed and his mouth was wide open, blood spreading all over his chest and robes, staining them dark red.

  "We need him to be healed!" shouted a Mushroomon.  "We need bandages!"

  Kari rushed over to Lady Myotismon and knelt by her, taking her hand in hers.  Her own dark red blood stood out against her pale blue skin, and her mask had fallen off.  She had been battered up a ton by the final blast that the vortex had emitted before being destroyed.

  The vampire lady bared her fangs in a weak smile.  "Don't worry, Kari," she assured her as she saw tears staining Kari's cheeks.  "I'm fine."

  "Now I don't care whether you're Angewomon or Lady Myotismon!" cried the young digi-destined.  "I know you're all Gatomon to me!"  She cried even harder.  "I'm sorry!" she shouted.  "Forgive me, Gatomon!"  Kari turned to Necromamon.  "You too, Wizardmon!  Wizardmon, Wizardmon, WIZARDMON!"

  That was when Erika broke yet another silence with a gasp.  She ran over to her digimon partner, who was lying limply on the ground.  His feet were gone and his legs and robes were beginning to break up.  "INCANTEMON!!!" she shouted, crying.  "NO!  Don't leave us now!"  She held the good sorcerer's hands in her own.

  "Erika…"  Incantemon forced a weak smile as he squeezed Erika's warm hand.  "I'll come back… remember, I'll be in Primary Village."

  "NO!" she cried, tears welling up in her eyes..  She took her other hand and held her digimon partner's robes.  "DON'T DIE!"  It was then that he had disintigrated up to his waist.

  With what little energy he had left, Incantemon took his sword out of its holder and placed it on the ground in front of Erika.  "Even if I do die, you will still have a part of me."

  Erika picked the sword off the ground and stroked it.  The metal felt extremely cool in her hands.  She held her digimon partner's hand.  "Please, just stay!"

  "I can't…  I'm dying…  I'm weak…"  The light sorcerer was beginning to cry as well.  "Still, you will see me again… goodbye, Erika… Kari… Gatomon… Wizardmon, my brother."  Incantemon closed his eyes and took his final breath as his head began to dissolve into air and he had entirely disappear.  Only his sword remained.

  "INCANTEMON!" cried Erika, rushing over to the dirt.  Burning hot tears were streaming from her red-rimmed eyes down her cheeks.  She gasped, then cried her eyes out, burying her face in her hands.  "NO!!!!  THIS CAN'T BE!!!!!!!!  INCANTEMON, COME BACK!"  She wailed even more as she clutched the sword to herself.  Kari rushed over to Erika, attempting to comfort her, but she was also crying.

  "NO!" shouted Lady Myotismon, reaching out to where the good sorcerer once was.  She was crying as well.  "AURAMON!  Oh, Auramon!  Why did it have to be so soon!  Oh… you… you could have… you could have lived one more day!"  She pounded the ground in fury and cried into it.  No one had wanted it to happen, but Incantemon was extremely weak, and the blast of magic that his staff produced had hit him directly and made much of him beyond repair.  With what little living energy he had, he utilized it to assist his two friends in destroying the vortex.

  Shogun Gekomon let out a small sniffle, and said, "Let us pay our respect to Incantemon, who risked his life to help our friends Necromamon and Lady Myotismon destroy the digital vortex…"  He began to cry.

  All the residents of Little Edo gathered around them in a circle and bowed their heads in respect.

  "So he… died?"  Necromamon could barely utter the words after he heard the story.  "Is this true?"

  "I'm afraid so," said Shogun Gekomon.  "Come in, Erika."

  The crowd of rookie digimon solemnly parted to reveal Erika walking in, Incantemon's long silver sword in her hands.  She was still crying, but trying to hold it in.  She set the sword into Necromamon's hands, and he thought he was going to cry.

  "My brother," he whispered, bowing his head.  "And I never got the chance to say goodbye… the last thing I said to him was 'Good luck.'"

  Erika buried her head in her hands and cried.  That caused sensitive Kari to cry, which made Lady Myotismon and Necromamon begin to cry as well.

  "You have saved us all, despite the… loss you have experienced," declared the portly frog digimon.  "And if you wish to be vaccine and data again, we shall take you to Azulongmon, and he shall grant your wish when he hears the news."

  The news that three ultimate digimon, two of which were viruses, had willingly saved Little Edo had traveled like wildfire over the digital world.  Azulongmon had received the news and permitted the two virus digimon to come and have a reward bestowed upon them.

  Azulongmon's palace was at the top of the mountain, and was made of shiny blue marble and surrounded by white clouds.  It was the largest palace of light Necromamon had ever seen in his life.  They had ridden on two Monochromons' backs, with clean robes and a clean dress and cape.  Lady Myotismon was still without her mask.  Shogun Gekomon led them over the rocky ground to the mountain, and much of the digimon who had witnessed the battle had come along.

  They reached the summit of the mountain late that afternoon, and they could see the palace up close.  It was much larger than it had seemed from far away.  It was three stories high, not including the round tower on top with a moon minaret placed on it.  Intricately-patterned glass windows covered the blue marble exterior walls.  Tall blue glass doors led to the interior.  It appeared to be a larger and more heavenly version of Myotismon's castle.

  "There it is," pointed out a Gazimon.  "Azulongmon's palace."

  The two front doors opened to reveal a brilliant white hallway that led directly to the throne room.  Necromamon breathed in awe, trembling, hesitant to enter.  It was as if he was fearful of a digi god's palace.

  "Let's go inside," said Lady Myotismon, laying her hand on the dark sorcerer's shoulder.  "Don't worry; he's not Myotismon.  He's a digi god, and even though he is possibly more powerful and at a higher level, he won't give such a fierce punishment.  He's proud that despite the unorthodox treatment these rookie digimon have given us, we have willingly saved them."

  "With the help of Incantemon…" said Erika, on the verge of tears.

  Led by the dark sorcerer's steps, the party entered the palace.

  The interior of the palace was like a church: silent and peaceful.  It was so resplendent and pure, it was almost haunting.  They were afraid to speak; the silence was such a profound silence that shouldn't be broken.  Small, silent steps led the crowd to the throne room.

  "Enter," boomed a regal voice as the two blue glass doors parted to reveal a gigantic blue throne room.  Inside it was a bluish-white dragon covered with silver chains.  Azulongmon.  "Ah, Necromamon and Lady Myotismon.  I have been expecting you.  Come with your humans."

  The dark sorcerer glanced at the vampire lady, who glanced at the two digi-destined girls.  The four of them entered the room, and the doors slammed shut behind them, entombing them and Azulongmon in silence.

  "Ah, I have been expecting you," boomed the guardian.  "And I know what you want.  You wish to change back to the ways you were, do you not?"

  Lady Myotismon bowed her head reverently.  "Yes, I wish to change back to Gatomon."

  "I have wished for an anti-virus so I can transform into Wizardmon again, and then digivolve to mega," began Necromamon.  Suddenly his brother's sword caught his eye.  "But, there is something I wish for even more than having this toxin of a viral form washed out of my system.  That is, to have my brother return."  He extracted his own dark sword.  "Please, Azulongmon.  Bring him back so he's not dead, but only reconfigured.  I will give you my own sword in exchange for bringing my brother back to life.  This isn't just for me, but for Erika, and Kari, and Gatomon, and the entire digital world."

  "You are a very unselfish digimon," commented the guardian.  "Unselfishness is an attribute of a good digimon.  And I noticed you gave up your own sword instead of your brother's.  That is yet another sign of unselfishness: giving up something you treasure just for someone else.  But you need not give up your sword, for Incantemon has not died.  He has been reconfigured into a digiegg in Primary Village.  He will hatch when you come to him."

  Erika beamed, knowing her digimon partner had only been reconfigured.

  "Here, this sword is yours," said the dark sorcerer, handing the teenage digi-destined the sword.  "It belongs to your partner.  Besides, you should be the one to find him instead of me."

  "Do you still wish to change back into a vaccine?" asked Azulongmon.

  "Yes," replied Lady Myotismon.

  "Of course I do," replied Necromamon.

  "I do have the anti-virus for this, but the transformation is quite inordinate," said Azulongmon.  "You see, you have earned the respect of all your fellow digimon.  They all see you for who you are.  And I only have the anti-virus for only one of you, I'm afraid."

  Kari gasped.  "Gatomon, I'll never see you as Gatomon!  We all know how much Wizardmon wants to see himself as Wizardmon again, so he's who we'll give the anti-virus to."

  Erika nodded silently in agreement.

  "It's your choice to take it," said the vampire lady.  "If you want to be Wizardmon on the outside, then so be it."

  "No," replied the dark sorcerer firmly.  "I want Gatomon to be Gatomon again.  She was led into this because of me, and she should not be punished for something beyond her or my control."

  "Are you sure?" asked Azulongmon.  "You might remain in that form forever, and you might die."

  "But it was her choice because I changed into this," said Necromamon.  "She shouldn't suffer because I do.  That's just wrong.  Even if I have to suffer alone, at least I don't have to watch others suffer because of me."

  "But you'll die!" shouted Erika.  "I don't want any Wizardmons to get reconfigured, much less die!"

  "Erika, I'll be fine," assured the dark sorcerer.  "Even if I do die, the entire digital world will remember me, and at least I get to see my friend happy."

  "Is that your final decision?" asked Azulongmon.  "It can't be changed back."

  "I'm sure," said Necromamon.

  "As a matter of fact, I would like to be a Gatomon again.  But not for me.  For Kari," said Lady Myotismon.

  An Angemon flew in through another door on its six wings, carrying a golden vial of a bright pink bubbly potion.  It had an enchanting aroma, much like the opposite of Myotismon's stenchful viral potion.  He handed it to Lady Myotismon, who shakingly took it, looked at Necromamon, then put the glass to her lips, tilting it.  The liquid tasted sweet, flavorful, and strong and bubbled like soda as it was poured down her throat.  As she took the final swallow and returned the empty glass to the angel digimon, her entire body began to glow a gold color.

  Her fangs retracted into her mouth.  Her lips, face, and skin all took on her normal glowing skin tone.  Her blonde hair grew lighter and much longer.  The blue outfit changed into a revealing white outfit, the accessories turned into white and pink ones, and the cape disappeared to make way for six white feathery wings protruding from her back and spreading into the air.  The crimson mask she had worn as Lady Myotismon changed into a silver helmet, which she produced and placed over her eyes.  She was Angewomon again.

  "Thank you for the anti-virus, Wizardmon," acknowledged Angewomon before she morphed back into Gatomon.  Gatomon leapt into Kari's arms, and she hugged her affectionately.

  "For being unselfish and honest in your choice, Wizardmon," said Azulongmon, "you will be granted the ability to flush the virus out of your system.  But there is a catch.  You will need to digivolve to mega."

  "That doesn't sound so hard," said Erika.  "I hope it happens soon."

  "And you and Kari can return home," continued Azulongmon.  "Would you like to go home now?"

  "That would be wonderful," said Kari.  A white portal opened in front of them.

  "This leads directly to the real world," said the guardian.  "Something tells me you will see your friends again."

  "I will," said Erika, respectfully bowing to her two friends.  Kari did the same, and they traveled through the digital portal.  Erika had left the sword, knowing that Necromamon deserved it more.  Necromamon picked up the sword and placed it in where he kept his own.  The dark sword was hung from the rope that went around his waist.

  "You are dismissed," said Azulongmon.  "Good luck in digivolving to mega."

  The dark sorcerer and the cat digimon left the palace, where they were greeted by the curious crowd.  They were all wondering why Necromamon hadn't de-digivolved.

  "You all know I'm Wizardmon, don't you?" asked the dark sorcerer with a slight smile.  "All we need is time, and I will return to that form.  And we will see Incantemon again.  He hasn't died; he's just been reconfigured.  Lady Myotismon is once again Gatomon, and I am still Wizardmon, as I have always been.  I just need my body to return to that form.  You know, I'm actually beginning to like this form."

  Gatomon and Necromamon had come back together near a cliff to watch the sun set a few days later.  They had departed Little Edo and had been congratulated by hundreds of digimon.  Now they were by the ocean, where they could watch the tide roll in.  A brilliant sunset bathed Server a vibrant vermillion color as the golden sun sank into the ocean.  The champion and the ultimate digimon were sitting on a cliff that was towering over the beautiful sun reflecting into the ocean below, content that not only Gatomon returned back to normal, but Necromamon was seen as Wizardmon throughout the digital world.

  "Yes, someday I will be Angewomon again," sighed Gatomon.  "And we will see your brother again."

  "I don't know what it's like to be Incantemon," added the dark wizard digimon.  "I will know, but if we defeated Myotismon, what evil digimon is out there to fight us and cause us to digivolve?  I wish to reach my mega stage someday, to be a data and vaccine outside."

  "But you never defeated him completely," the cat digimon reminded him.  "So you don't know what Myotismon has in store for you."

  "Yes, Gatomon, I know Myotismon is still out there, and he has plans for me," said Necromamon.  "Yet I am not worried, but happy, for now everyone sees me for who I really am, both outside and within.  And to defeat Myotismon, I will have to digivolve to mega."

  And then he reflected on the events of the past few weeks.  And he knew that he would almost never again feel the angst and the torture he had experienced the previous few weeks.  And somehow, he was happy though he was what he never wanted to be: Forever Virus.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

OK, I doubt that was the ending you expected.  I hope you don't hate it!

In the sequel: Now that others see Necromamon for the mon he really is, he has a new challenge.  It is the challenge of digivolving to mega.  It will come up this August if I get a chance to write it during this three-week vacation I'll be going on.  I can't think of a title.  I'm glad you liked FV, and I hope all of you will like the sequel! 


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